


Not Quite a Soldat

by jimblejamblewrite



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 48,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27525520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jimblejamblewrite/pseuds/jimblejamblewrite
Summary: Chanel Jefferson is not a superhero. No serums, no agencies. Just a civilian from a long line of family that’s served in the military. Chanel’s a history buff and bit of a spy in her own special way. This somehow lands her in trouble she never saw coming and straight into the hands of Falcon, Captain America, and Black Widow… if she doesn’t get caught in the unbreakable grasp of the Winter Soldier first.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Original Female Character(s), James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

“Yes, Joan?” Sam Wilson asked one of the vets at his VA. The others all turned their faces to her. 

“Um, I know this girl. She’s not a veteran but she comes from a military family. Really invested in telling our story and making sure people understand the truth about war. Wicked smart too, I think she’s getting a journalism degree or already has it… can’t remember if she graduated already or not but I was wondering if I could invite her? Only if you guys are okay with it, she already has a couple books out that she did with her grandfather before he passed. It wouldn’t be invasive, she’s cool.”

The other veterans looked around the circle at each other. Joan was one of the first to start showing up to Sam’s particular VA group. If she trusted this girl, maybe they could too. Everyone agreed with a promise from Joan that if it was too much or the girl made them uncomfortable Joan would ask her to leave. 

* * *

Joan laughed as Chanel smoothed out her skirt. She sitting in the car with her since she offered to drive Chanel to the VA meeting. Joan had served with Chanel's older sister and cousin. She had also worked with the girl's older brother a few times. Joan was more family than just her siblings’ friend. 

“You didn’t have to get dressed up you know. We’re a bunch of vets just trying to forget our problems and play some chess.”

“First impressions, Joan. I just want to make a good impression on everyone.”

“Well, they’re all waiting and ready for you, Caliber.” 

Chanel snorted at the nickname her family had given her when she was maybe ten, twelve. It never went away even after meeting Joan. Chanel grabbed her tote bag and followed Joan into the building. The group was already sitting in their circle when Chanel and Joan walked in— it was mindless talking, they weren’t late. Chanel sat next to Joan, wringing her hands from nervousness. 

“Our newest member!” Sam greeted jovially, trying to ease the young woman's nerves. “Your name?”

Um, hi, I’m Chanel Jefferson.” 

The other veterans smiled, everyone could see she wasn't a very extroverted person. At least not in big groups, not right away. 

“Joan says you write our stories?”

Chanel fished in her tote bag for the books and handed them to Joan who started to pass them around. She took out the dog tags of various family members from under her shirt— her sister always thought it was cute how whenever Chanel was around other military, she tended to tuck the tags in like they did. Chanel also pulled out a small strip of leather from her bag. 

“My great great great great grandfather fought in the Civil War.” Chanel held up the leather strip, a makeshift dog tag. 

“That’s a lot of great,” one of the veterans joked, causing everyone to chuckle. 

“Yeah. At least one person every generation has been in the military since then. It started when they couldn’t tell us anything about the freedmen and slaves who fought, the books, I mean. So my grandpa and I started digging.”

“You were seven when this came out?” A guy held up the first book. 

“Told you she was wicked smart.” Joan smirked. 

“Well, Papa did most of the work for a long time. I just helped sweet talk the vets, no one can resist answering questions when a baby’s asking them.” 

And that’s how it started. The vets liked Chanel. They liked that she was there to record their stories and not just the horror but the funny bits, the mundane bits. And that she didn’t just interview them and their lives but also shared her life with them. She started coming in early to help Sam set up and leaving later to help him clean. Sam liked having her company, Chanel reminded him so much of his nieces and nephews. He wouldn’t admit it but Sam basically adopted her. 

“You know I met Captain America last weekend.”

Chanel stopped putting up the chairs to look at him. “No way, really?! Wow, wish I was there.” 

“If you had gone on a run with me.”

“Sam, if I go on runs with you I would never get my work done.”

“You never get your work done or never make it past the first mile?"

“Both.” 

“You’re always working.”

“I have to for rent, freelancing isn’t the easiest sometimes and DC ain’t exactly cheap.”

“Ain’t that what your books are for?"

“I don’t want to touch that money, that’s for real emergencies.”

“Well, I worry about you sometimes. Don’t see you with anyone but the vets.”

“Friends aren’t the easiest to make Sam.” 

“You don’t—”

“Those tags aren’t just from my family.”

The rest went unspoken as Sam nodded. Chanel grew up on a military base, she had spent her whole life around the military. Friends were either gone before they could get close, their family leaving to a different base, or as Chanel got older they were gone before a tour could finish. She only got close to a few once they were out, like Joan. 

Chanel wasn’t sure if that was why she continued to write the books even after her grandfather passed. To keep her friends’ stories alive. Not all books were on American soldiers, that was part of the reason Chanel freelanced. She traveled and told everyone’s story she could find. And as long as the military existed, stories would exist and she would be there to write down every single one. 

“Well, how about you start working remotely? I’ve been told I’m a great chef. I make a mean stack of pancakes.” 

Chanel nodded, thanking Sam for the offer. He was right. Even if she wasn’t actively making friends, she shouldn’t keep to herself in her house. She agreed to come over for meals with Sam— he failed to convince her to go on runs with him. 

Sam came back from his run while Chanel was on his couch sorting through papers. Books with firsthand interviews were easy to write. But the current one that she had set up was a look back into history. And Chanel had lots of files and books sent to her as well as recovered journals from family members of soldiers. A few weren’t in English and she was currently sorting through the translations her trusty interpreter had given her. 

These look backs were always some of Chanel's favorites— she was a history buff as well. This would probably be her last historical book for a while when it came to the military but Chanel was definitely going to look into something else. Maybe writing easy to digest history for children, she had always loved mythology as a child. 

Sam passed by giving Chanel a wave instead of saying hi, she had headphones on. He was going to take a shower and then make the two of them breakfast. Chanel lifted her head from transcribing a soldier’s journal at the soft pounding. Sam was still in the shower. She took her headphones off to find the pounding wasn’t soft at all, but very frantic actually. Her face was almost bashed in as Chanel narrowly missed the fist coming at it when she abruptly opened the door.

“Sorry, I’m Steve Rogers, Miss.” 

“Steve, should you really just say—” 

“She’s in his house. If Sam trusts her, we’ve got to as well. We have no choice, Nat,” Steve said to the redhead.

She turned to Chanel. “Everyone we know is trying to kill us.” 

Chanel looked back into the house, hearing the running water finally stop. 

“Sam! You’ve got very important company!” 

Steve and Nat looked stunned as the door slammed in their face before Chanel opened it up again, looking sheepish. 

“I didn’t mean to do that, come in, please.” 

Steve and Nat looked around amused as she apologized and scrambled to put the papers up so they could sit on the couch. She looked at their faces and jumped up to get towels, they were dirty and probably bleeding somewhere Chanel couldn’t see. She had moved to the dining room table in the kitchen, to give them room. Sam came in a few minutes later followed by Steve and Nat. They sat down at the table while Sam started cracking eggs for omelettes. 

“So the question is, who at S.H.I.E.L.D. could launch a domestic missile attack?” Nat asked. 

Chanel was starting to think that maybe she should leave but she was really looking forward to Sam’s breakfast. So Chanel just kept her head down and continued to transcribe the translations onto her laptop. 

“Pierce,” Steve answered.

“Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world,” Nat retorted. 

“But he’s not working alone.”

Nat looked over at the papers to see what Chanel was doing. Without really asking permission she picked up a piece of paper and slid it over to Steve. 

“S.H.I.E.L.D.?” 

“It’s for my latest book. I wanted to start doing the history of government agencies after finding a few soldiers that moved on to S.H.I.E.L.D. It’s fascinating really, except for this discrepancy. Well, not just this one but a few discrepancies actually. This soldier is S.H.I.E.L.D.” 

Chanel held up the notebook and its translations. “But a lot of this is HYDRA. And it’s not the only one, I think HYDRA’s trying to infiltrate… those are the guys trying to kill you, aren’t they?” 

“Pretty much.” Steve sat back in his chair. He looked at Nat, them exchanging looks. 

“I know. They’ve probably already got a hit on her now.”

“A hit? I’m sorry who?”

“You get any of this stuff under the table? Back alley dealings?” Nat asked Chanel. 

“No. Why would I?”

“Right, you’re an innocent civilian.” Nat eyed her up and down. “Even easier to make disappear.”

“Disappear?” Chanel turned to Sam who was on defense now but also had no clue what was going on. 

“You’ve unknowingly put a target on your back. HYDRA isn’t just going to let information of their infiltrating get out to the general public.” 

Chanel sank down into her seat. Writing history books, publishing biographies. Life was supposed to be easy or at least simple. Now she potentially had a very dangerous spy organization breathing down her back and looking to murder her. Worst part, Chanel had no friends and little family. It wouldn’t be too hard to make her disappear. 

“Zola’s algorithm was on the Lemurian Star so was Jasper Sitwell,” Nat commented to Steve.

“Zola? I think that’s somewhere in here… this guy, end of World War 2. Met Zola a little bit before S.H.I.E.L.D. or whatever the early days of S.H.I.E.L.D was.” 

Chanel pointed to some scribbles in Russian that Nat looked at, not even needing the translation sheet. 

“She’s right. This guy knew Zola. Okay, Miss…”

“Chanel.”

“Chanel. You need to watch yourself and uh, maybe find a different topic for your little history lesson.” 

Steve finished off his breakfast. “So how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a S.H.I.E.L.D. officer in broad daylight?”

“The answer is, you don’t.” Sam plopped down his old file in front of them. “Consider this a resume.”

“The Khalid Khandil mission,” Nat said, looking the file over. “That was you?” 

“You didn’t say he was a Pararescue. Is this Riley?” Steve asked. 

Chanel had heard lots about his wingman Riley. From the stories, he was a good man. Sam handed them a second part of the file. Steve opened it, looking at the pictures inside. 

“I thought you were a pilot.”

“I never said pilot.” 

“I can’t ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason.”

“Dude, Captain America needs my help.”

Chanel snickered and the three suddenly remembered the woman was there. She smiled softly at Sam and gave him a pat on the arm. 

“Last one of those is in Fort Meade. Guarded heavily.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Steve said as he dropped the file reading **_EXO-7 Falcon_** on the table. “Chanel, we’re gonna have to borrow Sam for a minute. Try to lay low and stay safe.” 

“Understood.” 

Chanel scooped up all her papers and notebooks and left Sam’s house. After the talk with Steve and Nat, she became paranoid. It would’ve been much cooler to meet them under not so scary circumstances. Now, every car that passed her and every pedestrian whose stare lingered a moment too long made you nervous. She only breathed out a sigh of relief once she entered her apartment, dropping the keys on the counter and flopping onto the couch.


	2. Chapter 2

Chanel decided to take Steve and Nat’s advice to drop the HYDRA/S.H.I.E.L.D. project. She didn’t even want it in her apartment. She knew exactly where to bury the information but first she needed to start with returning books on it to the library. Then Chanel would head back home and get rid of the other information. Not information, evidence at this point. Her stomach rumbled and Chanel realized she hadn’t eaten breakfast yet or lunch. She had gotten so used to Sam feeding her that she didn’t realize she hadn't been making food or eating outside of the three times a day visits. 

Hopefully, Steve and Natasha would return him soon. But Chanel also hoped Sam was having a good time doing whatever he was doing with them. Chanel dropped the books off at the library before stopping at a food truck. The lemonade felt refreshing as it went down her throat. She dropped the change in the tip jar and took her tacos. Maybe Sam would be able to make tacos? 

“Sorry, ma’am. New rule, no open food on the bus even if you aren’t eating.”

“Oh, well when’s the next bus?”

“Ten minutes.”

“That’s fine then, thank you.”

“Have a nice day.”

The driver closed his doors and Chanel quickly shoved the rest of the taco into her mouth so she could get on the next bus. She finished the lemonade and threw it away as well. The next bus rolled up in exactly ten minutes like the other driver said and she got on, greeting the driver. Chanel decided maybe she should take a long ride on the bus before going home so she could clear her head. That would require music. 

She pulled some earbuds out of her backpack— the dog tags attached to it jingling— looking at the tangled mess, sighing as she started to pull at the strings. Chanel was almost done untangling them when she was thrown from her seat as the whole bus tipped over, broken glass spilling everywhere. She looked up as best as she could. 

“Steve?”

Chanel watched _the_ Captain America grab his shield and try his best to stand straight in the bus he had just crashed into. She didn’t have much time to process because that’s when she heard the screaming and gunshots. It was all very discombobulating but Chanel knew one thing, the bullets hadn’t gone through the bus yet. The bus was currently the safest place, clearly not being the target of whatever was going on. Until she heard some more yelling and then eerie silence. Steve looked at Chanel and grabbed her, shoving her body behind him and the shield. She screamed as the bullets pierced through the bus. Steve guided her out of the bus. 

“Wait, wait! Let her go. She’s a civilian, let her go!” Steve yelled once they were in the middle of the street. 

Chanel peered from behind his shoulder to see lots of men with lots of guns. One of the men, the boss she assumed, nodded. Steve shoved Chanel, telling her to run. Having seen enough action movies and learning a lot from her siblings and father, Chanel knew better than to run in a straight line. She didn’t care how silly she looked running in a zig-zag pattern, if those men at any point turned on her, she wasn’t going to make it easy. 

Of course, bad luck seemed to be following Chanel that day. She ran away from Steve only to be on the exact same street that Nat was fighting. Nat made eye contact with her, screaming for Chanel to get away before Natasha was shot in the shoulder. Chanel gasped as she watched Nat sink down behind a car, clutching her shoulder. Chanel looked up to see the culprit of who shot her, some man with a metal arm. The elusive Winter Soldier that she had read about in the notebooks of a few soldiers. 

Whereas the Winter Soldier was ignoring all the other screaming pedestrians, he was staring right at her. Chanel realized that as he stalked deliberately her way. This was it, they already knew about her. She wasn’t target number one but HYDRA had definitely told him about her, or maybe he saw Chanel's name and face in a debriefing on Steve and Nat. Either way, she was a target— even if it was a small one. 

Chanel started to run but it was too late. The Winter Soldier grabbed her by the top strap of her backpack and pulled her into a headlock. She wasn’t even worth wasting weapons on. He was going to kill her with just his hands. Chanel started to thrash when she felt his hands move into a position that would allow him to snap her neck. Her father had offered, her sister had offered, and even her brothers had tried to teach Chanel combat and what they knew. Chanel never got very far in the trainings and usually goofed off, none of them taking it too seriously since everyone knew she was the recordkeeper of the family not the fighter. Now she was regretting not paying a bit closer attention. But she knew enough to know what he was trying to do. 

“Drop her!”

She heard a yell and both she and the Winter Soldier were knocked to the ground. He let go upon impact and Chanel rolled away, the pavement hurting as she did. Steve had thrown his shield and Chanel sat up against the curb, watching as they fought. The Soldier turned a gun on Steve who used his shield to block it. Nat gestured to Chanel with her hand for the woman to come hide behind the car. She was scared to move, afraid that if she caught the Soldier’s eye he would turn back to her. Steve lost his shield as the Soldier lobbed it at him, the shield sticking in the side of a van. Steve kicked the gun out of his hand and Chanel froze up as it landed near her. 

But the Soldier didn’t even turn around to look for it, he just grabbed a knife instead. Chanel waited for him to focus on Steve, who had flipped over a car, before grabbing the gun and racing to the car where Nat was. She gave Chanel a once over making sure the woman was okay before patting her knee and leaving her behind the car. Chanel stayed down for a minute before peering over the hood of the car to see Steve punching the Soldier in the face and the mask he had falling off. 

“Bucky?” Steve stopped fighting. 

“Who the hell is Bucky?” The Soldier asked. 

Bucky, that was a name she had heard before but couldn’t place exactly where at the moment. Not that it mattered right now. Chanel watched the Soldier stalk back towards Steve, briefly pausing to look behind him at Sam before continuing his mission. Steve was too in shock and Chanel watched the Soldier get closer. She aimed the gun at the car behind him, it was leaking and the right spot would blow it up. Chanel steadied her breathing, unsure how her family could focus on pulling a trigger in the midst of war, and pulled. 

The car blew up causing everyone to duck and when they looked back up the Soldier was gone. Sam, Nat and Steve looked at each in confusion and then at Chanel. She dropped the gun, the clanking it made as it hit the hood of the car seemed like a bomb going off. A bunch of black vans swarmed the area and men dressed like the SWAT team flew out.

“Drop the shield, Cap!” One man yelled.

“Get on your knees!” Another said. 

Steve, Sam, and Nat did as they said. Chanel watched the small standoff, worried that they would actually shoot Steve right then and there but the news helicopter that appeared on the scene seemed to stop them. They arrested the three before one of the men spotted Chanel. She had been frozen on the spot. If she had moved she thought they would shoot so Chanel just stood there and hoped maybe she’d be missed. She almost was. 

“No! She’s not a part of this, random civilian caught in the crossfire,” Steve argued with them.

“She didn’t help us!” Nat and Sam yelled.

“Get the girl.”

“Rumlow!” Steve yelled. 

Their pleas fell on deaf ears as Chanel was ushered into the van with the other three. They roughly shoved her into the van at the feet of the other three and threw her backpack at her. 

“Nothing but a laptop and some notebook shit. She’s a civilian.”

Chanel breathed out a sigh of relief that they hadn’t looked too carefully otherwise those notebooks would’ve given her away before she had gotten the chance to get rid of them. 

“Still she’s seen too much.”

“We can’t kill her.”

She didn’t hear the rest of what they said. They shut the doors as they ended their conversation. Sam helped Chanel up to her seat, rubbing her arm trying to calm her. The other soldiers didn’t say a thing to provide Chanel comfort, except for one who offered her their seat. Everyone could sense how she was on edge after hearing the bit of dialogue between the two men that she did. 

“The car?” Steve asked, not elaborating but Chanel knew what he meant. 

“Is that why Joan calls you Caliber?” Sam asked. 

She nodded and he just laughed gently. Caliber. The nickname Chanel earned after her first trip to the shooting range. She hit the target dead-on. And since then she never missed a shot. It started with arrows at the archery range and moved into handguns. Each time, she didn’t miss the target. If she did miss it tended to be a fluke or a load of other factors but if it was just Chanel and a target, she would hit. But that was the extent of any sort of real training she had. It got quiet until Steve spoke up. 

“It was him. He looked right at me like he didn’t even know me.” 

“How is that even possible? It was, like, 70 years ago,” Sam piped up.

“Zola. Bucky’s whole unit was captured in ‘43. Zola experiments on him. Whatever he did helped Bucky survive the fall.” 

Chanel racked her brain as she tried to think of what was in the notebooks in her bag. It wasn’t all HYDRA soldiers and 43 sounded really familiar to her. Bucky Barnes. Chanel knew who he was, known by Soldat in some notebooks. But the Bucky in the particular notebook she was thinking of belonged to a Howling Commando. 

“None of that’s your fault, Steve,” Nat said. 

“Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky.”

Natasha groaned and they all looked over at her. 

“We need to get a doctor here,” Sam said as he looked at the bleeding bullet wound on her shoulder. “If we don’t put pressure on that, she’ll bleed out here in the truck.” 

Chanel got up, being the only one not in handcuffs after they deemed her no threat. A soldier yelled at her to sit down but Chanel shakily made her way to Nat to put pressure on her wound. The redhead gave her a soft smile. Another soldier cracked out a small staff that buzzed with electricity. Chanel looked over wide-eyed, they wouldn’t actually taze her just for helping? Before that question could be answered, the soldier turned that staff on the others and they all dropped. 

“Ah. That thing was squeezing my brain.” The soldier took off her helmet. “Who are these two?”

“Sam Wilson and Chanel Jefferson” Steve answered. 

“Maria Hill, one of the good guys,” she introduced herself and then looked pointedly at Chanel. “Sorry, you’ve been dragged into all this.”

Chanel shrugged as best as she could while keeping pressure on Nat’s shoulder. “I deal with soldiers 24/7, it was a matter of time the fighting comes to me I suppose.”

The van they were in stopped in the middle of the woods. Maria led the four of them into some weird underground bunker. Nat was taken from Chanel's hands and ushered into the little makeshift hospital area. They were face to face with a man who had an eye patch occupying one of the beds. 

“About damn time,” he said. 

“Nicholas J. Fury,” Chanel gasped.

“Just Nick… who the hell are these two?” He gestured to Chanel and Sam. 

“Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?” Steve asked. 

“Any attempt on the Director’s life had to look successful,” Maria explained. 

Nick sat up as best as he could. “They can’t kill you if you’re already dead. Besides, I wasn’t sure who to trust. You know you can’t go home now.”

That last part was aimed at Chanel. Everyone stopped. It was the elephant in the room. They had dragged a civilian into it… one with a target from HYDRA on her tail. Chanel was, for lack of a better word, fucked. She let out a shaky breath and Sam rubbed circles on her back trying to calm her. He was already using tactics from his VA groups, although never in a million years did he think he’d be doing them on her. 

Sam regretted ever telling Joan that Chanel could come to the meetings, because if he had said no it wouldn’t have led to this. But it was too late to do anything. So Sam rubbed circles on her back while he and the others discussed how they were going to stop HYDRA’s apparent death weapons. Somehow that was the easy part, the hard part was going to be rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. when it was all over. Steve was against it at first, wanting to take down the whole thing. But he compromised with Nick and they agreed they would start over with the Avengers in New York. 

“And you,” Maria said. 

“Me?” Chanel asked finally looking up from the spot on the table she had intently focused on. 

“How much of all this do you know?”

“Hey, come on. We said she’s—”

“I trust her.” Maria cut Nat off. “You said you were about to destroy all the information. How much of it do you have left?”

“All of it. I was supposed to burn it when I got home.”

“It’s all on you, in that bag?”

Chanel nodded and opened the backpack for everyone to see. 

“Somewhere in there are full plans about this. Keep working on it, if we fail, you upload that thing to the Internet and spread it to every news site you can. People should try to prepare themselves.” 

Chanel wasn’t expecting to be put on the mission, even if it was a small non combat role. Decoding documents and scouring through pages was something she did well, Maria wanted to use it. After looking at some of her notes Nick also agreed. Chanel just became the historian, another bad nickname to add to her list. 

* * *

Chanel was taking a break from decoding and went above ground to stand on the bridge. At least the secret bunker had a view. She looked up to see Sam and Steve, Sam graciously handing out a mug of coffee for her. They had also come for a little break. Chanel smiled as she took it, enjoying the warmth and sipping on it. Steve sighed and rested his elbows on the railing. 

“He’s gonna be there, you know,” Sam said after a moment. 

“I know.”

“Look, whoever he used to be and the guy he is now, I don’t think he’s the kind you save. He’s the kind you stop.”

Chanel absentmindedly rubbed her neck, if she thought too much or zoned out, she could feel the tightening of his headlock. She shuddered and took another sip of coffee. She had read a lot about Bucky’s old days with Steve during the war. Chanel frowned into her cup. How long did it take HYDRA to break a man like that? And how much of his soul was still Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes? 

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

“He might not give you a choice. He doesn’t know you.”

“He will. Gear up, it’s time.” 

Steve started to walk away. 

“You gonna wear that?” Sam asked.

“Nope. If you’re gonna fight a war, you got to wear a uniform.”

“Wait, Steve. Mind if I tag along? They’ve got a few notebooks where I think you’re headed.”

Steve cocked an eyebrow at Chanel.

“It’s also for the fight, Captain. I just have a slightly different uniform.”

Steve chuckled and nodded for her to follow. She handed the coffee mug back to Sam and followed Steve towards the Smithsonian. The history nerd in Chanel wanted to geek out. But she had to remind herself this was serious business as she waited for the exhibit to close. She trailed close to Steve, trusting that he knew how to break into the museum. While Steve grabbed his old World War 2 Captain suit, Chanel grabbed the notebooks she could see. 

Chanel paused as she passed the Howling Commandos display, laughing at the now naked Cap mannequin. Her eyes glazed over the statues and stopped on Bucky’s uniform. Without much thought, maybe because Steve had such blind faith, Chanel grabbed Bucky’s dog tags from the mannequin and quickly went to wait outside the bathroom where Steve was changing. 

* * *

Chanel was waiting by the river. They didn’t want her staying at the bunker completely alone but wanted her as far away from the action as possible. So the river was the best option. Chanel wanted to make herself useful, she had stayed up all night finishing the article about HYDRA that she hoped she wouldn’t have to publish. Because if Chanel had to hit the send button, that means they failed. After finishing the article, she grabbed one of the notebooks from her backpack. The bag had basically become an extension of her body. 

She was reading through the notebook she had started when she first met Steve and Natasha. About halfway through, the soldier stopped writing in Russian and switched to English. Everything was also in a different tense so she could only assume that he was no longer in the war. Chanel noticed two bodies in the middle of the river. She squinted, trying to make the figures out. One was carrying the other, more like dragging. Chanel crawled back on her hands when she made out that it was the Winter Soldier. 

He unceremoniously dropped Steve at Chanel's feet and turned him over. He watched and just watched, not even sparing the woman a second thought, until Steve coughed slightly. The Winter Soldier— Chanel couldn’t bring herself to call him Bucky— looked at her with a tilt of his head. He looked back out at where he and Steve had come from the river, the S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters that she could see burning. The Soldier took the knife from the strap on his thigh and threw it towards Chanel. She looked at the thick serrated blade. The Soldier started to walk off. 

“Wait!” she finally found her voice. 

He turned around and watched Chanel scramble around in the backpack. She pulled out his dog tags that she stole from the museum. It was a moment of bravery and she wasn’t sure if she’d ever have it again as Chanel met his blue eyes. Ice blue eyes that she couldn’t seem to make out any real emotion. That looked like he was ready to kill her if she so much as breathed the wrong way. Chanel pressed the tags into his flesh hand and quickly backed away to check on Steve. 

* * *

“This is the fifth time we’ve played this album.”

“I want him to hear it when he wakes up,” Sam said. 

Chanel sighed and sat back in her chair. Steve chuckled alerting Chanel and Sam. 

“On your left.”

Sam laughed at an inside joke Chanel had clearly missed between the two men. Once Steve was cleared from the hospital, the three left to meet up with Nat and Nick. They were at a cemetery, looking at a gravestone with Nick’s name on it. He was dead to the public while he, Maria, and Nat built new personas in order to establish a new S.H.I.E.L.D. They felt it was time to go back to an old friend who they knew had some spare space in a tower. 

“You know Tony Stark?”

“Trust me, not as cool as you think,” Nat said. 

“Well, Miss Jefferson. Romania are you sure?”

“I’m sure Director. It’s far enough that no one will find me. I don’t think I can survive staying at an underground safehouse until you say.” 

“Understandable. We’ll get you back as soon as we know you’re safe.” 

Nick slipped a phone to Chanel. This was how she would keep in touch with everyone. She was on her own pretty much. Her family knew she had to leave for a while, of course them being military they trusted the little Chanel told them. And it helped that Nick made one special from the grave appearance to vouch for her. All of her money that she had made from the books with her grandad was taken out of the bank in lots of bundles of cash. The rest of the royalty checks Chanel earned from after she left would be funneled into an account for her by S.H.I.E.L.D. Chanel wasn’t sure how long she’d be gone but she was grateful for having never touched that money until now. 

Sam and Steve offered to take her with them while they searched for Bucky but Chanel declined. There was always a chance they would run into people also trying to find their friend, she wasn't trained like them— Chanel didn’t want to slow them down or have them worried about keeping her safe. 

“So… this is where we part ways.”

“We’ll meet again, stranger.” Nat pulled her in for a hug. 

Chanel hugged everyone else and they watched her get into the S.H.I.E.L.D. car, being driven by Sharon, and head towards the airport. Chanel looked at her luggage. Her backpack full of notebooks, a small carryon of clothes and electronics, and a small check-in filled with so much money it might’ve looked like she robbed a bank.


	3. Chapter 3

Aside from the kind of plain, cramped apartment, Bucharest was nice. Chanel's place was complete trash when she first bought it, until she had cleaned it up and used the first bundle of money to furnish the place. But overall, the small one bedroom place was nice. And the best part was Chanel's neighbors were quiet. She had actually only met one of them, the older couple on the ground floor. Everyone else moved on different schedules. So she never saw any of them. 

Chanel was eating an apple when the special phone buzzed. It was a text from Sam on the small group chat. It was Maria, Sharon, Nat, Nick, Steve, Sam, and her in the chat. Basically the remnants of former S.H.I.E.L.D. She sent back a picture of her hand on top of the notebook she was reading through. 

She couldn’t publish anything now, probably never could ever again but Chanel still enjoyed going through everything. She was also recruited by Nick to be the historian of new S.H.I.E.L.D. once they started up again. Nick thought her decoding skills and amazing work ethic was something they could use. Everyone agreed even when Chanel pressed that she couldn’t do what they did. In the end, it was Nat who convinced her. 

Nat had told her that it wasn’t always just about the fight but the papers and documents as well. Chanel had agreed afterwards and put up the military histories, mostly. Any soldier that had even a remote link to either HYDRA or S.H.I.E.L.D., she was still going to read through and figure out everything. After that, she already had an ongoing list of projects once S.H.I.E.L.D. started again. Chanel was about to be in the backdoor of every country on Earth. 

She got up to pour herself coffee and then realized the bag was empty. It was time for a trip to the market. Which wasn’t a problem, Chanel needed more fruits anyway. She changed out of pajamas and into a light summer dress. Grabbing the cloth bag on the coat rack, Chanel locked up and headed out the apartment building. She turned a nectarine in her hand before setting it back down to grab another one. Her hand brushed against a rough glove that was reaching for the same nectarine as her. 

“Sorry,” Chanel said before realizing that she probably needed to switch to Romanian. 

Learning the language had been the hardest part, and not one Chanel was very good at. So far she had only the basics and skirted by with English and a language dictionary that she didn’t bring with her to the market. She looked up from the fruit to apologize again in Romanian when Chanel froze. Even under a hat and in long sleeves, she couldn’t shake those blue eyes. Chanel sucked in a breath and dropped her bag, turning on her heel and running. There was no way he was tracking her. 

She was supposed to be safe in Romania, Nick promised her. Chanel turned down an alley. She was going to have to take a roundabout way to the apartment. She made a wrong turn looking at the wall in front of her, it must’ve been a left she should’ve taken not a right. Chanel freaked when a hand grabbed her and reached for the serrated knife that was almost permanently attached to the thigh strap worn under her skirts and dresses. She turned around, lunging with the knife when it was grabbed from her as if Chanel hadn’t even tried. The wall had trapped her in, there was nothing Chanel could do but cower against the wall. Her hands held up in front of her in the weakest defense. 

“Please, Soldat, don’t hurt me,” Chanel mumbled over and over as she sank against the wall. 

She heard him hum in disapproval before he crouched down to her level. Chanel turned her head. She looked at him in confusion when he gently grabbed her hands. In Chanel's right hand, he placed the knife. In her left, the bag of groceries she had dropped. 

“I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Chanel stopped looking in his eyes when the glint of the chain on his dog tags caught her gaze. She still couldn’t say his name but she knew he was telling the truth. 

“You kept it.”

He was talking about the serrated knife now in Chanel's hand. She nodded, slowly putting it back in the little thigh strap. 

“Good, watch yourself. Be safe.” 

He looked out the alley and nodded, deeming it safe. The Soldier patted her knee and stood up to leave. Chanel waited for him to clear her line of sight before standing up. When she left the alley, he was nowhere that she could see so Chanel headed back to her apartment. The door had four locks and she locked all four of them before relaxing. Chanel wasn’t craving her coffee anymore. She wasn’t very hungry either. She grabbed the notebook off of the dining room table and moved to the couch. The words were swimming as she kept reading and soon Chanel fell asleep on the couch. 

It had been a week without incident. Chanel hadn’t seen him again and she couldn’t avoid the market any longer, she needed food. If Chanel just avoided the stand maybe he wouldn’t be there. Once again, she was in a sundress with the knife on her thigh. She had thrown a light chunky sweater over it. 

Chanel closed the door and when she turned around he was there, closing the door to the apartment across the way from her. Chanel went to turn around but realized he would know where she lived. He probably already knew though, she did just close the door. He pulled at the glove over his left hand and just watched Chanel as if he was waiting for her to make the first move. 

“Do you have?” he tapped his thigh. 

“Mmm hmm.” Chanel lifted the hem just enough for him to see the tip of the knife. 

“Good, be safe… I’ll leave first.” 

Like the alleyway, the Soldier left first and was nowhere to be seen when Chanel got downstairs. She didn’t see him the whole time she was in the marketplace either. It made her feel both safe and scared. Safe if he was trying not to infringe on her space but scared because he could trail her like a shadow and Chanel wouldn’t even know it. She approached the apartment building when she saw him. 

“They’re watching your apartment,” he said as he took out a large sunhat from his bag, placing it on her head to hide her face. Chanel noticed it still had the tag on it. 

“They don’t know it’s yours, they’re waiting to see who enters. You can hide in mine.” 

“What do they look like? Have they been following me for long?”

“Man and a woman, dressed like cheap tourists. Gross Hawaiian shirts.”

Chanel laughed and he looked at her confused. 

“I know them. It’s my delivery.”

“Delivery?”

Chanel started inside and he trailed close behind her, like he didn’t believe her. She entered the apartment and he stayed by the door. Out of sight from the window. Chanel opened up the window and waved. She was tackled to the ground by him as the package flew through the window. Chanel quickly jumped up and waved, signaling that she was okay. They flashed a compact mirror so the light shined in her eye, signaling they were leaving and would see Chanel next month or in the next two months. 

“It’s not a bomb.”

She picked up the package. This was how she got mail from her family. Only S.H.I.E.L.D. was on the secret cellphone, Nick didn’t think Chanel's family would be safe if somehow the line was tampered with. So she would write letters and make packages of gifts, leaving them by the abandoned fisherman’s cart outside the building. And every month or so, a package from the two low-level newly recruited S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would fly through her window. Sometimes, wrapped in lots of bubble wrap if it was a fragile figurine from her mother. 

It was always the same two agents, they knew nothing and the only faces they had ever seen on file were Chanel's and their supervisor Sharon Carter. For Chanel's safety, it was kept that way. She set the package on the dining room table and opened it up. There were lots of letters and even a few tins of cookies from her sister. Her heart almost dropped when she saw the dog tags until Chanel read the letter attached:

**Not dead yet. Even the tours couldn’t get me down. Finally retired and settled down with Aleisha like you suggested… because she’s pregnant. Hope these little metal flats add to your collection. Love, Tyler.**

Chanel's second eldest brother had left the Marines. She smiled as she read the letter a second time, Aleisha was pregnant. Hopefully she would be able to make the baby shower, or the birth… or the first birthday. That was the goal Chanel settled on. Make it to the first birthday, target on her back be damned. 

The Soldier awkwardly shifted. He had made sure Chanel was safe and now he felt awkward in her space. He did a once-over of the place and walked out the door. Chanel still locked all four locks but only after waiting for him to enter his house, there wasn’t an immediate sense of danger any more. 

It was a couple more days and Chanel had finished the notebook, Harvey Smith. One of the bad guys. But it was done and it was time to move on. Chanel shelved the notebook. Tomorrow she would place it in the fisherman’s cart and it would be taken to Nick and stored in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s safe. She picked a new notebook, ready to start a little bit before getting breakfast. Chanel opened the little notebook and saw the name written in there: Bucky, 107th. She stood up and hastily unlocked the four locks to walk across the way. The shuffling of footsteps could be heard behind the door she was knocking on. His rough face softened slightly when seeing her, but it was still a scowl. 

“This is yours.”

Chanel handed him the notebook and he flipped to the first page seeing his name. His flesh hand immediately went to where she assumed his dog tags were underneath his shirt. 

“I didn’t look at it, if you’re worried about that.” 

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Bu…” 

The name faded on Chanel's tongue and it didn’t go unnoticed by him. He couldn’t help but subconsciously look at her neck before meeting her eyes. There was nothing else to say. Chanel had delivered the notebook so she gave him a curt nod and turned to head back into her apartment.


	4. Chapter 4

The knock on Chanel's front door stirred her from her nap on the couch. She cursed this apartment building for not having peepholes. Chanel unlocked two of the locks to open the door, it was just the Soldier. Undoing the other two locks, she opened the door fully to see him.

“You do this for a living, don’t you?” He asked, holding up his notebook in his gloved hand.

Chanel almost asked how he had a clue but realized it was probably in the file HYDRA had on her. She nodded mutely.

“I can’t make out a lot of it. Can you help me?”

He awkwardly shoved the notebook into her hands. Making requests and asking for help must not have been something he did often because everything about his execution was rough. Chanel flipped through the book to see what he was talking about. There were water stains, smudged ink, pages so faded that the only thing left was the indent of the word from when the pencil or pen had hit the page. 

The Soldier’s eyes fell from Chanel to inside her home. He could see the crumpled blanket on the couch and the TV playing Romanian soap operas on low volume. That’s when he noticed Chanel wasn’t wearing a dress like she always was when he saw her outside but she was in pajamas.

“Were you sleeping? I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine. I probably shouldn’t sleep the whole afternoon away. Would you like to come in?”

He hesitated before stepping through the doorway. Chanel pulled one of her empty binders with looseleaf sheets of notebook paper from the shelf. 

“You can sit and, um, change the channel if you want,” she said as she went into her room to change clothes and look for a pen.

Chanel sat down on the couch after finding one, there was a good bit of space between the two of them. She wrote on the front of the binder in big letters, **Bucky 107th**. Starting at the first page, Chanel began transcribing. She had been doing this with her grandpa since seven and had gotten pretty good at deciphering hard to read notebooks. It helped that in terms of handwriting, Bucky was one of the neater scribes. The first few pages were very mundane, just describing army routines. The first real interesting bit of information was the first time he got wind of Steve’s Captain America act… not knowing it was Steve.

_Is the clown in the bright suit supposed to make us feel better? Where’d they even find that punk? I suppose the dames behind him ain’t too bad… it’s all still too chirpy for me, this is real war not games like Stevie and I used to play. I never looked death in the mouth before but I feel like I’m staring it down more days than not now._

Chanel looked up when she heard low laughter. He was laughing at the TV. Did he speak Romanian? She finished up the journal entry for that day before setting the pen down. When Chanel looked over to the clock it had been quite a few hours, he had surprisingly stayed the whole time. And didn’t move once, she would’ve remembered the weight of someone as big as him every time he got on or off the couch. Chanel unclipped the sheets from the binder.

“Here are the first few pages. I’ll give you more when I finish another section.”

He took the paper from her hands, staring at his words in her handwriting.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Once again the air between the two grew heavy with silence. He stood up and started walking towards the front door, Chanel quickly following behind to lock it.

* * *

Bucky got out of his shower to hear a faint scuffle sound in his front room— and only room aside from the bathroom. Without hesitation, he grabbed the small handgun and knife and stalked slowly towards the front entrance. He looked puzzled when he saw no one until a paper slipped under his door. He walked over and another went through. That’s when Bucky saw the small pile at the front door. 

He recognized Chanel's handwriting right away, this would be the fourth time he’s received a section of his transcribed journal. She must’ve knocked when he was in the shower and when he didn’t answer decided to start sliding them underneath his door. Bucky smiled as the next paper slipped through. He was about to open the door when he could hear her stand up and then the shuffling of her feet. 

Bucky collected up the sheets of paper and placed them on his kitchen counter, he still hadn’t finished the other section yet. Chanel was transcribing faster than he could bring himself to read the journal. It wasn’t easy, every time he read a section he thought he could pick out a memory but it was blurry and not clear. It didn’t really feel like it was his. 

The next time Chanel opened the apartment door was to go to the market. The Soldier was at his front door, almost like he had been waiting for her. Before he could even ask, Chanel patted the thigh where the knife was hidden. He nodded before letting her walk down the stairs first. The two walked in silence for the most part, occasionally when Chanel needed to haggle a price he would do it for her after sensing she didn’t really know Romanian. The two walked back to the building when Chanel spotted the ugly tourist shirts. It was delivery time! 

Chanel had finished the fifth section a little after dinner. These pages were all water stained making it take longer than the previous four. She unclipped the sheets from the binder and grabbed the cookie tin that her sister and mother had sent her. He answered on the third knock, just like Chanel, opening the door slightly before unlocking all the locks to see her fully. She handed him the papers.

“Thank you.”

“Um, my mother and sister sent me some more cookies. Did you want one? I can’t eat them all before I get more.”

“I wouldn’t want to bother you, you’re already doing a lot for me.”

“It wouldn’t be a bother, Bucky.”

It shocked both Chanel and him. Bucky had noticed the way she had avoided his name, trying not to ever call him. If Chanel did it was usually ‘hey’ or even worse the occasional ‘Soldier’. He moved aside and motioned for her to come in. 

The difference in her and Bucky’s apartments was day and night. Starting with he had a studio while she had a one bedroom. The pull out bed was currently put up in the couch. He also hadn’t decorated much, or at all. Chanel had tried to make the safe house a home, Bucky was just trying to survive in a shelter. The only things not out of necessity he did have were a small television and a radio. Bucky grew self-conscious as Chanel entered his space like he wasn’t aware she was really in there until she had set down the cookie tin. 

If she didn’t like it, she didn’t make a point to show it. Chanel wasn't in a dress but a skirt and top. He was starting to wonder if that was Chanel's 'leaving-the-house-attire' as if she always had to look presentable or people would judge her. Her hair was never not done, nails always filed and sometimes painted. He shouldn’t be analyzing her but he couldn’t help it, it was in his nature. And for the most part his analysis was right. 

It was a habit that carried over since Chanel was young. Rule One of being a black girl: you must be twice as good to get half as much. Rule Two: never give them a reason to walk over you. So Chanel was always presentable, never looking a mess, and no one— not even Sam had ever seen her looking less than that. 

She opened up the cookie tin and handed one to him. Bucky took a bite and had to admit they were good. He set down the papers on the counter next to the others and Chanel looked at the two piles, one of pages already read and the other much taller to get to. 

“It’s hard to read them for myself. Like the words aren’t mine,” he admitted quietly.

Chanel jumped up as best as she could on the small counter, crossing her ankles so as not to flash him, and grabbed one of the papers from the stack.

“I’ve never seen so much fucking mud in my life...”

The brashness of his words was such a contrast coming from what he perceived to be a quiet girl— damsel in distress for lack of a better term. Bucky grabbed two waters from his fridge, setting one next to Chanel as she continued.

“When will this dumb war be over? I’d like to get home, maybe find a dame or two and go dancing. Shit, see Stevie again hopefully in one piece and not a bruised body, kid can’t stay out a fight to save his life. They got in new weapons yesterday. I got first pick of the snipers, new one’s a lot more practical…”

Chanel read three more days worth of Bucky’s journal. 

“Thank you, you really didn’t have to.”

“I don’t mind, there’s not much to do here anyway.”

Both Chanel and Bucky didn’t leave their apartments often. Soon she probably could, she told herself that it was probably safe. Chanel was getting closer and closer to the day Nick called and said she could go home. She even had the knife on her at all times but she still couldn’t bring herself to enjoy the sights of Bucharest. 

“I have an hour free after three and usually start transcribing your notebook after that, once I finish my other work. I can come over and read during that time or you could come over if you just want company while reading.”

Bucky gave Chanel what she could only think resembled a smile and nodded at her suggestion. So a new schedule formed. Most of the time, he chose to come over to her place and would sit on one end of the couch while she sat on the other. Sometimes he would silently read his journal entries while she transcribed the newer ones. Other times, Chanel would read them for him. 

Bucky always had to wait a few minutes whenever he knocked on her door, she had to put on presentable clothes and fix her hair if she hadn’t done so already. The occasions he saw Chanel in a headscarf, it was a patterned one that was purposely used for styling. Bucky looked over when he heard her gasp. Chanel had just finished transcribing a page after Bucky and the rest of the 107th had been rescued by Captain America.

“Steve! He’s been looking for you, I’m sorry I forgot to tell you. I have his number, I can—”

“I don’t think I’m ready.”

“Okay.”

“Is that bad? Steve’s my best friend but I still can’t remember…”

Chanel scooted over from her place on the couch to place a hand on Bucky’s arm.

“You need time and that’s perfectly valid. I’ll always have his number, we’ll call Steve and the others when you’re ready. I promise I won’t say anything until you’re ready.”

Bucky looked at Chanel curiously when she lifted her pinky in front of his face. It seemed so trivial but she was wearing the most serious expression she could muster. He tentatively lifted his flesh hand and wrapped his pinky around hers. This was the first time since the incident in the alleyway that the two had real physical contact. For the first time since he dumped Steve at Chanel's feet on the riverbank, Bucky felt like he might have a friend— or at least a person who cared about his well being past being an asset.


	5. Chapter 5

Chanel knocked twice and then once, Bucky knew it was her right away and all the locks were unlocked so she could see him completely. 

“Are you ready?” 

He smoothed out his jeans and nodded. Chanel looked at the gloved hand, wondering when she would see the metal— she hadn’t since being in Romania. She and Bucky decided to go on a proper outing that wasn’t just for groceries. The two of them had talked the night before and agreed that with the two of them and no dangerous encounters yet, one nonessential outing wouldn’t hurt.

“Do you have it?”

Chanel lifted the dress hem slightly. Not that she could forget the knife if she tried. It was a security blanket at this point. The outing wasn’t super extravagant. It was to a little antiques shop near the market but it was more than either of them had done. Chanel roamed the small but cramped store looking for gifts to send back to her family. Bucky thought maybe he would decorate his apartment too, make it more of a home like Chanel did. But he couldn’t bring himself to make the space more than what it was— a hideout. The last time he had a comfortable space that was his own was his room in his family home. Before he got shipped out to war. 

He watched Chanel pick up little trinkets and place them in the shopping basket. So far in the bag she had Russian nesting dolls, a little jewelry box, a small pocket watch, and an ancient cookbook of recipes. The two of them didn’t talk about anything past Chanel reading his notebooks but occasionally— when she had to answer the phone while he was there— he had heard enough conversations with her family to figure out which present was for which family member. 

Chanel took the shopping basket to the cashier, she didn’t find presents for all of her family but she would get them something later. Bucky watched Chanel swing her backpack onto the counter to get her wallet, the clinking of her family’s dog tags that were tied to a strap caught his attention. 

He had looked at them one day when she was in the bathroom— he couldn’t help it, he was curious to know why Chanel was so invested in stuff like this. Bucky thought she was a vet too or someone that was in active duty before having to hide out. But he never found her tags. He did however see every other person in her family. He realized while Chanel wasn't a soldier, war seemed to follow wherever she went and surrounded her. After seeing the tags, Bucky swiped one of her books to read. 

For several days he would sit on his couch and go through the book. Chanel didn’t bullshit the stories. She told war and the military like it is, nothing glorified. Just raw stories of soldiers and the fact that sometimes shit sucked. Bucky liked that and he trusted her a tiny bit more with the notebook. Chanel had respect and reverence for the vets but didn’t once forget how unpretty it could really be at times. 

He became fascinated with her Tuskegee Airmen stories. One of the Howling Commandos was supposed to be an Airmen before finding himself on the frontline with the 107th that had gotten captured. Bucky didn’t know much about the Airmen and wanted to read about his fellow military members that were treated like shit in an already shit war. She only had a few stories in the particular book he read but Bucky wasn’t ready to ask Chanel if she had any more. So he silently put the book back before she noticed it was gone and hadn’t brought it up since then. 

Chanel thanked the cashier and left the shop. She had a full bag, Bucky had empty hands. The market was bustling and Chanel let Bucky take over all the transactions. She wondered how many languages he spoke— obviously time as the Winter Soldier meant they trained him in multiple. The two of them found a bench in the park and sat down, the food in between them. Bucky whipped out his knife to cut up the two apples into slices. He made a point to sit on the left of Chanel so when he handed her a slice it was always with his flesh hand, even though both were gloved. 

“I’m almost finished with the very last part of the notebook.”

“Thank you so much for doing this for me, seriously.” 

“I’m happy to help, Bucky. I wish I could get it done sooner but S.H.I.E.L.D. has me working on government documents that are no longer US, lots of translating.”

“Take your time. You’re a government worker now?”

“It’s not that fun, especially all the secrets.”

Lunch ended like most things did with Chanel and Bucky, silently. She walked back to the apartment building both relieved that the outing went well. Maybe they could do more, Romania seemed to be a safe space for both of them. 

“Your delivery.” 

Bucky pointed to the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in their standard Hawaiin shirt attire on the building next to theirs. Without much thought, he followed Chanel into her apartment to make sure she was safe. The package flew through the window once Chanel opened it. It was smaller than usual but she took it to the table like always. Bucky watched Chanel drop to the floor before he could catch her. His shirt was becoming soaked with tears by the second. Bucky grabbed the box from the table as best as he could while Chanel was crumpled in his arms. 

It was another pair of dog tags but not a note from her younger brother— a note from her mother instead. This was the ugly side. Bucky put the box back up on the table and helped Chanel stand. He gave her a once over, rough gloves scratching at her face when he tried to wipe at her tears with his thumbs. After making sure she wouldn’t collapse on the floor again, Bucky left knowing Chanel needed time to herself. 

It had been five or six days since he had last seen Chanel so the knock on his door was welcoming, he scrambled to find his gloves. Despite the obvious tear stains she was still dressed up. Even in distress, Chanel wouldn’t let anyone— not even Bucky— see her in any state that made her appear less than. She gladly accepted the mug of tea, Bucky was not a coffee person— caffeine was too on edge and he liked things that were calming. 

“He was in the air force, my younger brother.” Chanel stared at the cup of tea. 

Bucky took the floor while she was on the couch.

“Chose it after learning about the Tuskegee Airmen. We were the closest, us two. I didn’t even get to go to his funeral.”

Bucky almost reached out to pat her knee but drew back. Chanel didn’t get to go to her brother’s funeral because of HYDRA, because of him. He just stayed in his position on the floor and listened to her talk. 

“He was just so full of life, you know. My best friend. We should’ve been twins honestly, we always used to joke that he was a year too late in the womb or I was too early,” she chuckled a bit. 

“I’m sorry Chanel.”

“You don’t have to apologize. Nothing you and I could do about it… I finished your notebook, I didn’t mean for it to take so long.”

“You were going through something.”

“I, um, also got you this when I was out yesterday.” 

Bucky was amazed that he hadn’t heard Chanel's door open or close. She must’ve slipped out after he had left for the market. She had drowned herself in government notes to try and numb herself from losing her brother but then she realized how unfair it was to Bucky and bought him an apology present. Chanel pulled a notebook out of her bag and handed it to him along with the finished last section of his old book. 

“I figured it might help if you started another one. Writing about your day or if any memories come to you. Maybe it’ll help you remember who you were, who you are now.”

Bucky took the notebook from her and flipped through the empty pages. He turned it over in his hands, looking at the leather bound book. Chanel sipped the rest of her tea in silence before Bucky got up to turn on the radio. The slow folk songs on the radio paired with the calming tea lulled Chanel into a sense of sleep. Bucky watched her eyes flutter before eventually staying closed. He took up his spot on the floor again and began to write whatever came to mind— the little glimpses of what he could remember under HYDRA’s imprisonment. 

* * *

Chanel was so out of touch in her little bubble in Romania that the text from Nick about Ultron and a whole Avengers unit came as a shock. They were still tracking down who was after her but Nick was sure Chanel could come home soon. New contacts were sent to her phone with the new Avengers— well, old Avengers from New York’s battle but they were new to Chanel. Nick felt that he could trust them with the information of who she was to S.H.I.E.L.D. Sam was kind enough to update Chanel on any mission they took and she made sure to never answer when Bucky was over, fighting was something Chanel wanted to keep him far away from. She would update them but her work went farther than just S.H.I.E.L.D. It felt almost weird being in every country’s back pocket. 

“Nick, what the hell is going on?” 

Chanel watched King T’Chaka on the television. He was in front of a UN press conference. It was all over the news, the incident between the Avengers and a small HYDRA team led by Rumlow. Wanda— a new member who Chanel had yet to meet— caused a lot of damage. She was watching the clip of the upper floor of a building exploding. Whatever Wanda’s powers were, they were terrifying. She may have saved a lot of people on the ground but Chanel couldn’t say the same for the people on that floor of the building. 

“Nick, you guys need to do something about this. This is serious.”

“I know, I know. It was just—”

“Don’t say it was just a mistake. That might work for me but those governments are going to want answers. Wakandans died, Nick!” 

“We’ll handle it.”

“You better.”

“This might delay your return home.”

“That’s fine, this is more important. Besides, I’ll take a mini vacation. Just handle it… and whatever the UN wants, give it to them.” 

Chanel watched King T’Chaka finish his speech. “Victory at the expense of the innocent is no victory at all.” 

She turned off the TV and dropped the remote on the couch. Sure, he was right. But if any country or government official wanted to act like they achieved victories peacefully, Chanel had a bag full of dog tags and several books that pointed otherwise— Wakanda wasn’t innocent either.

* * *

“Vienna isn’t too far from here,” Chanel said, tentatively. 

Bucky set down the fruit he was looking at. The wind ruffled her dress as if it was giving her the answer for Bucky. She shrugged at his raised eyebrow. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Chanel.” 

“Maybe next month?”

Bucky sighed. “We’ll revisit it next month.” 

Chanel nodded and let Bucky grab the wallet from her backpack. It was the best she could hope for. She followed behind Bucky as the two continued getting food for their lunch. He stood in line at the stand for drinks. Bucky almost froze up when he felt Chanel's forehead hit his back until she sighed. 

“It’s hot.”

“You’re in a breezy dress.”

“It’s still hot.”

“I bought you a sunhat for a reason.”

“I couldn’t mess up my hair, my twist-out looked too good.” 

Bucky said nothing for a moment but moved up in line, there was a momentary coolness from when her forehead was no longer against him before the warmth returned. He listened to her mumbles of complaint while he ordered. Chanel reminded him so much of Steve sometimes, he felt himself slipping into his old self. Not his old self— his real self, before HYDRA took everything away. 

“Thank you,” Chanel said as she took the drink from him.

“You need to learn Romanian.”

“Teach me then. I don’t get how it’s so easy for you.”

“Okay, _printesa_ ,” Bucky snorted. 

The two of them left the stand. Bucky naturally put out a hand to block Chanel from stepping off the curb as the cars raced by. Her eyes glazed over as each car blurred by, there were surprisingly a lot of yellow taxis— she thought that was just a New York thing. Bucky wasn’t focused on the cars like Chanel was but was looking at the man across the street running the newspaper stand. 

She followed Bucky, a little confused, as he made his way to the newspaper stand. The man inside had run off as the two got closer. Bucky picked up the newspaper and Chanel saw the headline plastered. She didn’t need to read Romanian to understand, the words Winter Soldier were written clearly. They were saying Bucky did something and it must have been a lie because he was with her every day. 

“We need to get you home.” Chanel pulled Bucky towards the path to the apartment building. 

Bucky pushed Chanel behind him as he walked into his apartment. She heard the static of something but caught the end word, Cap. Chanel peeked out from behind Bucky who hadn’t said a word and was still standing at his front door, blocking her view.

“Steve?” she said looking around Bucky to see Steve holding Bucky’s notebook. 

“Chanel? What are you doing here?”

“I live across from Bucky.”

Chanel shook Bucky’s arm and he broke from his gaze at Steve. Bucky looked like he was a deer in headlights. She knew he wasn’t ready to see Steve who she also realized was dressed in his Captain America suit. If Steve was here and not to see her— he didn’t even know where her safehouse was— then it was for nothing good. 

“I’m sorry.” 

That was the first thing Bucky managed to muster. 

“She told me, I just wasn’t rea…” the words died down in Bucky’s throat. 

“I get it, Buck.” 

Bucky swallowed. “I wasn’t in Vienna, I don’t do that anymore.” 

Chanel's eyes flitted between Steve and Bucky. What didn’t he do? What happened in Vienna? Bucky didn’t tell her what the newspaper said as the two rushed home. 

“Well, the people who think you did are coming here now and they’re not planning on taking you alive.”

Steve took a step closer and Bucky guided Chanel behind him again. He turned his head slightly so she would know he was talking to her and not Steve. 

“Go home.”

“Bucky, whatever they wa—”

“Go home, _printesa_. Do you have it?”

“Always, Bucky.”

He knew that. He had asked before the two left the building if Chanel had the knife on her. Bucky was asking as a security measure. The three of them turned towards the door as they heard footsteps up the stairs. Steve and Bucky knew it was too late to send Chanel into her house, they would see her coming from Bucky’s apartment. Bucky moved her to the other side of him, further away from the door. 

“This doesn’t have to end in a fight, Buck,” Steve said. 

“It always ends in a fight.” 

“You pulled me from the river, why?”

“I don’t know.” Chanel watched Bucky pull off both of his gloves— the first time she'd seen it since being in Romania. 

“Bullshit.” 

A canister flew in through the window, breaking glass. Bucky kicked it towards Steve who placed his shield over it. The canister exploded. Pounding started at the door. Bucky threw his little table at the door where it jammed to form a temporary blocker. Chanel screamed as two armed men busted through the windows. 

“He’s got a civilian,” one of the men yelled. 

“Engage regardless.” She heard through the comm of one the guys. 

“Floorboard,” Bucky told her. 

Chanel jumped as Steve punched out one of the men who had come through the door. As Bucky and Steve fought, Chanel raced to the floorboard that Bucky was talking about and pulled out his backpack, shoving his notebook into it. Bucky grabbed it from her and threw it onto the roof of the building next door. He grabbed Steve and threw his friend at one of the men. Bucky was carefully fighting, enough to stop them but not enough to kill anyone. He meant it, he didn’t do that anymore— kill innocents. And even though it was a mistake, they were innocent and just doing their job. 

“How are we going to get her out?” Steve yelled as he stood back up. 

Bucky raced to his front door, where they had just shot off the hinges. He and Steve raced past Chanel to fight the men in the stairway. There was nowhere safe for her. She just had to duck and huddle in a corner in attempts to avoid bullets while waiting for Steve or Bucky to clear a path. Steve came back to grab her. 

“Run past Bucky. Building next door.” 

After saying that, he jumped from the top of the stairwell to another one below. Chanel took in a deep breath before racing out the door. She took the stairs two at a time. The two men stopped fighting momentarily when they heard Chanel scream as she watched a man fly off the balcony. Steve grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back up and threw him into a wall as Chanel kept running. 

“Really, Buck?” Steve asked. 

Bucky just shrugged. Chanel made it to the building that Bucky had thrown his backpack on, heaving as she got up to the roof. Bucky almost lost his fight with the man in front of him when he saw her dog tags. They had dropped off the backpack as she was running. Bucky scooped them up and kicked open the fire exit. His landing on the building next door was rough but the super soldier of course was fine. Chanel threw him the backpack and Bucky shoved her dropped tags into her palm. He grabbed her hand to run— still his flesh one. So much was going through his head as he took her hand. 

Once again, he felt the Winter Soldier was ruining Chanel's life. The concrete of the rooftop scraped her leg as she and Bucky fell. Chanel looked up to see what had hit them. A man in a catsuit… with claws? Bucky threw his backpack to Chanel and he began to fight. Sam raced down and scooped her up. 

“Can’t put you down now but I promise we’ll get you out of here.”

It only made Chanel more nervous as he flew. Sam knew there was no current safe place to drop her so he had to keep flying to wherever Steve and Bucky were. Which also meant towards the mysterious cat man and the bullets. Chanel screamed as the man in the suit grabbed onto Sam’s wings when they had made it into the underpass. Sam threw Chanel up and kicked the man off. He grabbed her before she could hit the ground. When the two landed near Steve and Bucky so did many black vans, the man in a panther suit, as well as someone Chanel had gotten info on from Nick— Rhodey, in the War Machine suit. 

“Stand down, now.” Rhodey aimed his weapons at the group. 

“Let her go, she got caught in the crossfire,” Sam said. 

“She’s with you.”

“Rhodey, she’s bleeding.”

“Bucky,” Chanel yelled as they aggressively pushed him to the ground. 

Her mouth opened in shock when the man in the suit took off his helmet. She had seen that face on the TV standing next to his father deliver a speech, Prince T’Challa. The men were all getting arrested aside from T’Challa. One of the army men approached Chanel very aggressively. 

“Come on,” Steve, Sam, and Bucky protested as they arrested her. 

Rhodey finally broke. “Ease up on her a little… and get her a medic.”


	6. Chapter 6

While still being arrested since she was at the scene, Rhodey had convinced them to let Chanel sit in the passenger’s seat of the van currently carrying Steve, Sam, and T’Challa. The three men behind the caged area. Chanel ignored most of their conversation— checking out after Sam asked T’Challa if he liked cats. To say she was pissed was an understatement. The men were all in comfortable outfits that they had under their suits, Sam and Steve were even allowed their jackets. Chanel hadn’t been allowed to go back home and change, not even with an escort. 

They had wanted everyone on planes to Berlin immediately. And with no other women on the squad that had come to collect Bucky, Chanel was stuck in her sundress. The only satisfaction she got was no one had searched her, Sam and Steve would’ve put up a fight and even Rhodey knew a line would be crossed. So Chanel still had all the contents of her and Bucky’s bags in her backpack as well as the knife still hidden on her thigh.

“And now, because your friend murdered my father…” 

Chanel checked in when she heard T’Challa speak those words. 

“He didn’t murder anybody,” she said but she was ignored. 

“So I ask you as warrior and king, how long do you think you can keep your friend safe from me?”

“He didn’t murder anyone,” Chanel said loudly. 

The three men got quiet. Chanel turned as best as she could to look T’Challa in the eye. King or not, he had no right.

“I’ve been with him every day since being in Romania. So tell me, king, how can a man be in two places at once? I don’t care what you think you know and I’m sorry for your loss, I understand how that feels but the man who murdered your father is not the man locked up in the van behind us. He’s innocent.”

“You would vouch for him?”

“With my life… and my life is not cheap, Your Highness.” 

Sam and Steve smirked when Chanel turned back around. T’Challa grabbed his necklace that held his father’s ring and rubbed it between his fingers. He didn’t know Chanel very well but the bandage around her leg, the sundress, and clear lack of fighting… not even a spy could act that natural, she was clearly not an accomplice of any kind to Barnes. He knew what he saw, what everyone said but T’Challa wanted to believe her. 

They were escorted out of the car to the garage of a very secure building. In front of them was a CIA man and the familiar face of Sharon Carter who looked very puzzled to see Chanel with them. 

“What’s going to happen to him?” Steve asked as you guys spotted Bucky’s containment unit being wheeled in. 

“Same thing that ought to happen to you,” the man said. “Psychological evaluation and extradition.”

“For what?” Chanel asked. “He didn’t do anything.”

“I’m sorry, who is she?” 

Sharon stepped in before Chanel could say something. “This is Everett Ross, Deputy Task Force Commander.”

“How about a lawyer?” Chanel continued. 

“Lawyer. That’s funny. See that their weapons are locked up, we’ll write you a receipt.”

Ross was grating on her. He looked her up and down with a raised brow and air of condescension. “And figure out what she knows.”

“Sir, I don’t think…” Sharon protested along with the others. 

“Only if I stay with him,” Chanel said. 

“No,” Ross pressed. 

“I’ll run.”

“Have you seen the armed guards?”

Sam grabbed at Chanel's arm. T’Challa looked on with intrigue, she shied away from everyone but fought so hard for Barnes. Why? 

“You shoot a civilian? Better hope you kill me with one shot because I’m sure the press would have a field day, when I tell you everything, I’m sure they’ll still have a field day.”

“She really a civilian?” Ross turned to Sharon. 

“Sir, that’s Chanel Jefferson.”

“The S.H.I.E.L.D. historian… Shit!” Ross exclaimed when Sharon nodded. “You guys infiltrated her safehouse?! Damn it, this makes us the bad… okay, will you talk with us in the office and then we get you to Barnes immediately?” 

Chanel nodded. 

“Get her a proper medic and find a change of clothes.” 

Chanel walked over to Bucky and gave him a smile, one he returned very tight-lipped. She shook hands with the Avengers who had only heard of her from Nick and had seen maybe one or two pictures. It didn’t take long for the entire government building to hear about how they fucked up and got Chanel caught in the crossfire. Everyone stared at the wrapping around Chanel's leg. Chanel was informed after taking a seat that the UN members were already aware that she was with them— of course only a few S.H.I.E.L.D. members knew her face but Chanel's name and what she did was known by everyone. Before the Accords were even a thing, she was the loose link between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the UN. The mole that knew how to keep a secret so well they couldn’t even pin a location on her. 

She watched them hook up Bucky’s containment unit into a large outlet on the security screens. The edge everyone had from Sam and Steve off the grid mission was quickly forgotten. Even Tony couldn’t be mad after seeing Chanel, he knew something else was up. They all did and before they entered the room, Steve had made up his mind to sign the Accords. He had made it up after seeing Chanel almost get dropped on the highway after T’Challa had leaped onto Sam. She was one of the civilians he was trying to protect and they had done a bad job of that. Steve had always fought for freedom, it was an American thing, a 40s thing. 

He felt the Accords were stifling that freedom of the Avengers to stop the bad guys— how could they stop fights if they had to wait for a panel to confirm, everyone knew the UN was slow. But maybe it was the right way to go about if it protected people like Chanel, someone that protected Bucky. 

“Coffee?” Tony asked Chanel. 

“Tea, please.”

“Coming right up.”

Ross sat across from Chanel while everyone else took seats at the table. The Secretary of State was pulled up on video call. Chanel thanked Tony for the tea and placed it in front of her. Ross’ face dropped with each sentence, so did T’Challa. Bucky couldn’t have been the man, not unless Chanel secretly had super spy training and were lying to all of them. Nat prided herself in knowing people and she knew Chanel. The same woman that helped her and Steve was the same woman in front of them— not a liar. 

“But if it wasn’t Barnes then who?”

“Is that my problem? I told you Bucky was with me, we didn’t even know about Vienna.” 

“He still needs to answer—”

“For what, Secretary?” 

Nat sat back a little, she hadn’t seen this nippy side of Chanel but was thoroughly enjoying it. 

“For his crimes, Miss Jefferson.”

“When he was a prisoner of war under HYDRA. I didn’t realize the US government encouraged the torture of war prisoners, or excuse crimes of people they like and ignore helping actual victims… actually after reading what I have, I’m not surprised. Should I pull up the countless journals I have? I’m interested how the general public would feel about reading how HYDRA slipped under the nose of almost every government in the world.”

“Miss Jefferson, I don’t think you understand the gravity of this.”

“I don’t think you understand, Secretary. My job is enough to put all of you under and I will release every document to the public. Every backdoor contract, unknown HYDRA spy, shady table dealing. You think you’re secret but your paper trail is heavy and even digital leaves a footprint. You shouldn’t have given me the keycard to the world.”

Rhodey tried to hide his snort. Sam and Natasha smirked while Steve looked on proud, his friend picked one hell of a girl to protect him. The secretary’s face hardened for a moment. He knew Chanel was right. They all knew she was right, there was enough evidence to shut down the world and it was all under her thumb. And that was something they couldn’t take back now or ever. 

“So you propose we just let Barnes go? Let the Avengers run wild.”

“I propose we get Bucky the actual help he needs and you negotiate the Accords on better terms.”

“Privately?”

“God, no. My whole family is a part of this world. Contrary to whatever you may think, I do understand how this works. Bucky will have to speak publicly, on the UN floor. But after that you let him go and we redo the Accords. Take it or leave it.”

“If we leave it, you’ll pull the trigger won’t you?”

“Her nickname is Caliber,” Sam spoke up, giving Ross an answer while Chanel just sipped her tea.

“Fine. I’ll get the UN on the phone, this will take time. Are we allowed to interrogate, I mean question Barnes while he is here, Miss Jefferson? As a preliminary.” 

“I can’t stop you from that, Secretary.” 

“I wouldn’t know anymore.” 

He hung up and everyone around the table looked at Chanel. Ross was the first to speak in a demeanor that she assumed was him trying to apologize for earlier. He called in the medic who undid the first wrappings and began to disinfect— T’Challa apologized for causing the wounds. His hit was enough to take out a super soldier, at the time he hadn’t realized Chanel wasn't involved and by no means a super soldier. Chanel nodded through a hiss as the disinfectant touched her leg, accepting T’Challa’s apology. Sharon came back with a pile of clothes for her. 

“How about we get you bandaged, clothes changed and then we take you down to see the tail end of Barnes’ questioning in person?” Ross asked.

“Sounds good.” 

Chanel turned her attention towards the screen showing Bucky’s container while the medic pulled out the bandages to start a rewrap, Ross turned up the volume so everyone could hear. Tony watched Steve thumb through the Accords. It was a moot point since Chanel had made it so clear that they would be renegotiated but the corner of Tony’s mouth lifted as he watched Steve sign it before passing the pen to Sam. 

“I’m not here to judge you. I just want to ask you a few questions.” They heard the interviewer ask Bucky. 

“Do you know where you are James… I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, James.” 

“My name is Bucky.” 

Ross relaxed again. He was prepared to send Chanel in, fully bandaged or not, hoping that Bucky would talk if she was there but he started before Ross could move.

“Tell me Bucky, you’ve seen a great deal haven’t you?” 

“I don’t want to talk about it.” 

Steve turned back to the pictures in front of him while Chanel focused on the interrogation TV, blocking out everyone else. 

“Why would the Task Force release this photo in the first place?” Steve asked. Everyone but Chanel turned to him. 

“I’m saying, it seems like a good way to flush a guy out of hiding. Set off a bomb, get your picture taken and the world starts looking for the Winter Soldier.”

“You think someone framed him to find him?” Sharon asked. 

“Considering Chanel’s the only one who managed to see him all this time, the only way to find him would have to be big.” 

“But that doesn’t guarantee that whoever framed him would find him.”

“Yeah,” Ross chimed in. “It guarantees that we would.” 

All of a sudden the building was plunged in darkness. Ross started talking over a walkie talkie for someone to get the power back up and get the cameras back on. Tony started scrambling for F.R.I.D.A.Y. to find the source of the power outage and fix it. The lights came up and Chanel was the first to spot it, having never taken her eyes off of the monitors. 

She recognized the star on the big red book that was now on the table of the interviewer in the room with Bucky. The Russian words that she had memorized after seeing them written in so many different documents— hidden in code until she had put all the pieces together. 

“Guys!” 

They directed their attention to Bucky thrashing around screaming ‘no’. He broke through his chains but couldn’t get through the thick glass of the box. Bucky started banging on it to try and break it. 

“Someone gets Barnes out of there!” Ross yelled over the walkie. “And one of you, get her out.” 

Everyone left the room, Chanel being flanked by Tony and Rhodey. Tony pulled her back as they made their way to the cafe on ground level. Chanel heard the punch and knew it was Bucky. Not her Bucky from Romania but the Winter Soldier. 

“Is there another way out of here for her?” 

“He’s blocking it,” Ross said.

“I’ll go back up, see a second way,” Rhodey said before leaving. 

“Okay, shit, we’re gonna have to fight through. Stay back if you can Chanel,” Tony said as he whipped out his Iron-Man glove— the only part of the suit he had on him. 

“Understood.”

Chanel watched Tony go in first. He ended with his ass on the floor but at least he got Bucky to empty all the bullets from the gun he had grabbed. Nat and Sharon tag teamed Bucky and wow was Chanel mildly jealous of the women and their fighting skills. They were brilliant. Until they weren’t as they were both crashed into tables. T’Challa was next and Chanel already knew he would be down as Bucky turned to him. 

The Winter Soldier was on a rampage and for what Chanel didn’t know. She was stuck on the stairs when he came towards her, the only target left. Chanel grabbed at the knife on her thigh as Bucky’s arm pinned her against the wall, his metal arm slowly crushing her windpipe. He grabbed at Chanel's wrist holding the knife causing it to drop. Bucky looked down at the knife on the floor. 

“Soldat, please,” she barely whispered. 

He quickly pulled his arm away from her throat. Looking Chanel in the eye, Bucky tilted her chin so he could see her neck. Not seeing any bruising or signs of harm, he bent down to grab the knife and shoved the handle roughly into her hand. His eyes seemed to harden again. Chanel sank to the floor as he raced up the stairs. Steve who was coming from the sublevels met Chanel shaking, the knife wobbling back and forth. 

“He went upstairs, I think he recognized me,” she said as Steve crouched to check on her. “Go, Steve. I’ll be fine.”

The knife shaking in her hand told him otherwise but Steve left at Chanel's insistence and raced up the stairs to find Bucky. It wasn’t hard as he followed the sounds of T’Challa fighting him— the man had darted up the stairs seconds after Bucky left Chanel.


	7. Chapter 7

They wouldn’t let Chanel see Bucky. Ross didn’t care what deals they had made with her. After she had heard he and Steve landed in the water from a helicopter crash that Steve caused, they wouldn’t let Chanel see him. And unfortunately the Avengers seemed to agree because of Chanel's lack of any sort of super power— even Nick. 

“The minute we know he’s not the Winter Soldier, we let you in to see him. Okay?”

Chanel was surprised the Secretary of State was on her side. She had really freaked him and the rest of the UN out, now they wanted to do whatever stayed on Chanel's good side. And it seemed that her good side had everything to do with Barnes— even after they were sure he almost killed her. It started with them getting the press to clear Bucky’s name. Albeit, that process was going very slow. 

Maybe it wasn’t fair, potentially even selfish, but Steve went inside the room to see Bucky first before Chanel. She felt a bit of betrayal as he took Sam with him. Nat put a hand on her shoulder in an attempt for comfort. Chanel watched as Bucky rattled off facts about him, things they couldn’t find in a museum. Things only Steve and Bucky knew— and Chanel from transcribing his journal. 

“And just like that we’re supposed to be cool?” Sam asked. 

“What did I do?” Bucky asked, eyes pleading. 

“Enough,” Steve responded. 

“Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there and all he had to do was say some bullshit words.”

“Who was he?”

“I don’t know.”

“People died for this man to get ten minutes with you. We need better than that, Buck.” 

“He wanted to know about Siberia,” Bucky tried to recall. In Winter Soldier mode, he blacked out mostly. “Where I was kept, exactly where.” 

“Why would he need to know that?”

“Because he’s not the only Winter Soldier,” Chanel whispered at the same time Bucky said it.

The hand Nat had on her shoulder clenched up. They all looked around at each other. Steve and Sam looked back at the two way mirror. If Bucky wasn’t the only one, the world was screwed. It was something Chanel had just finished uncovering in a waterlogged HYDRA file that came her way. Ross, Nick, and the secretary turned to her. 

“If you hadn’t attacked I would’ve been able to send you that information.” 

Ross went in and kicked Steve and Sam out. Sam and Steve walked back into the room, communicating to the rest of the Avengers team with just nods.

“Where is she?” Bucky asked. 

“What the hell do you know about the other soldiers? We need to know this, Barnes.”

“Where is she? Is she okay?”

Ross looked around, exasperated, before turning to face the mirror. “Send Chanel in.” 

Ross watched as she walked in. Chanel held out a hand and after a defiant look he settled and gave her the key before leaving. Bucky watched her step further into the room, finally in a different dress. 

“This a smart idea?” the secretary asked Ross.

For once everyone agreed, the Avengers were concerned about Chanel. They watched as she unlocked Bucky’s cuffs. He didn’t move, they weren’t even sure if he was breathing as she stepped near him. 

“No,” Ross said. “He makes a move to kill her and we’re screwed.”

“Barnes trusts her. He was alone in Romania but opened up to her. I don’t think he would do that,” Nat said. 

“He stopped attacking her. She said he recognized her even as the Winter Soldier.”

Nick and Ross looked at Steve. He had dropped a bombshell and everyone knew it. This wasn’t the first time Bucky seemed to have a moment of clarity while in Soldier mode— and not the first time with Chanel.

“So he’s the only one he’ll speak to,” Ross said. 

“Even if he knows the rest of us are behind this glass?” Nick questioned.

They watched Chanel sit on the floor, tucking her dress into her lap to keep everything hidden and protected. Everyone collectively relaxed as Bucky slowly sunk to the floor and sat cross-legged across from her. 

“Do you have it?” he asked. 

Chanel nodded and took the knife from the thigh strap. Bucky nodded as he saw it.

“Don’t put it up,” he said as she went to place it back into its place.

“You won’t hurt me, Bucky.” 

“I did hurt you.”

“Bucky didn’t hurt me, whatever that man did to you hurt me. The Winter Soldier hurt me.”

Bucky swallowed and looked down. He pulled down the long sleeve of his shirt to hide the metal arm as best as he could when she subconsciously rubbed at her neck.

“Soldat stopped him.” 

Bucky looked up again. 

“I’m okay, so please don’t beat yourself up, Bucky.”

“But I…” 

Everyone on the other side of the mirror froze as Chanel slid the knife over to Bucky. Sam had one hand on the door ready to race in. 

“Then hurt me, Bucky… no? You didn’t and you won’t. Stand up, please.” 

He wouldn’t move until Chanel picked up the knife. She put it back in the thigh strap but it was good enough for him. Bucky followed where she directed him, getting almost uncomfortably close to the mirror making the secretary back up even though he wasn’t in the room. No one on the other side knew what Chanel was doing as she walked behind Bucky. He wouldn’t talk and she knew it. 

Chanel knew he was aware of all of them on the other side— if he didn’t before, the rotating door of people before Chanel that came in was definitely a big clue. Chanel needed Bucky to be comfortable and to open up again. Everyone on the other side of the glass looked in mild surprise at the sight in front of them. 

“Did he just crack a smile?” Tony asked. 

Bucky couldn’t help it as he felt Chanel's heavy head when her forehead landed on his back. She breathed out a large sigh. 

“I’m cold.”

“It’s an interrogation room, _printesa_.”

“When are you going to teach me Romanian?”

“I’ll start tomorrow. Heard Sam call you Caliber. That nickname related to what I think it is?”

“Only arrows and a twenty-two.”

“How good?”

“Eight rounds to the head, seven to the chest.”

“Moving target?”

“Can hit a kill zone if I really tried.”

“Why haven’t we bought you a gun yet instead of just the knife.” 

Chanel chuckled slightly before getting serious now that Bucky was warmed up.

“Will you tell me about the others?” 

They watched Bucky stiffen slightly before relaxing. He turned his head slightly to try and look at her. Chanel slipped her hand into his flesh one, another sight that surprised them all. Bucky faced forward again but wouldn’t let go of her hand. Ross and Sharon took notes as Bucky spoke, Chanel's mumbles and noises to let him know she was listening spurred him to continue talking. Notebooks didn’t do justice to what Bucky remembered. Chanel tapped his hand in the same pattern that she would knock on his door, twice and then once, as he talked about the training he put the others through. 

“But they were unstable at times. However, HYDRA’s most elite death squad was too good for them to kill the programs. My kills look like nothing in comparison to them and that was before the serum.” 

“Are they all like you?”

“Worse. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, destabilize. You can take down a whole country with the documents you have but that would still take months… they need one night.” 

“And would the doctor be able to control them?”

“Enough.”

“And they all used your trigger words, everyone’s under the same control?”

“To activate them, yes. To turn it off, we’re all on different triggers.” 

“Thank you for telling me, Bucky… I’m still cold.”

He huffed out something the others could compare to a laugh. Chanel tapped Bucky’s hand in the pattern once more before removing her hand from his. 

“What is about her?” Nick asked. “She gets everyone to open up.”

The secretary looked at where Chanel had peeked out from behind Bucky. “When this is all over, I want her moved up from just the historian.” 

“Sir, Chanel has no training,” Sharon said. “There’s a reason she didn’t join the military like the rest of her family. Are we about to throw her into a life that she stayed away from. For what? Interrogations and decoding?” 

“She stopped being a civilian the minute HYDRA had a target on her. The whole goddamn UN knows her name, so we train her but she clearly can’t go back to normal… if we’re going after the other Winter Soldiers, we need more than just you guys.”

“The Accords haven’t been redone.”

“Congrats, Captain Rogers. This is your last off-grid mission, round up anyone else you can and stop them. I’ll get the UN on the phone, schedule a hearing in a few days for when you get back.” 

They shut up when Chanel and Bucky entered. Any potential crack of emotion they saw from Bucky through the mirror was gone the minute he stepped into the room with anyone that wasn’t Chanel or Steve. Ross eyed him. 

“You know we need him. If we’re going to stop the others, he’s the best lead we have.”

“Absolutely not,” Steve said. 

“With all due respect, I wasn’t asking. Chanel has to come too. She would stay on the quinjet,” Ross quickly said before the protests could leave their mouths. “But if she’s the only one who can crack through Barnes even a little bit, she stays as close to him as possible.” 

Everyone nodded and started planning how to get home and find any other superheroes they knew, as well as getting Wanda, Clint, and Vision from the compound. T’Challa approached Chanel and Bucky. 

“I would like to give my sincere apologies to you both. If you ever need anything, do not hesitate to find me.” 

“You won’t fight?”

“I think I need to be with my people currently.” 

* * *

Chanel was in a hotel room next to Bucky’s. Since they were headed to Moscow it was agreed that she and Bucky would stay in Berlin while the others gathered who they could. Bucky hesitantly knocked on her door. Chanel opened without hesitation, he still wasn’t sure around her after what happened. Bucky looked at the attire Chanel was given, pants for once but still not dressed down. 

“Should we order room service?” she asked. 

“Whatever you want.” 

Chanel flipped through the menu, ordering for both of them before hanging up. It was silent until the food came but not the good silent that was usually between the two of them. 

“I don’t like whatever Bucky this is.”

“Why did you trust me? The only person still trying is Steve but I knew him before. Why you? Your first memory of me was a headlock.” 

“And my second memory was you dropping Steve at my feet, checking that he was still breathing before handing me a knife to protect myself. Whatever made you remember Steve told you that you could trust me. And then in Romania. Bucky you’ve never once done anything outside of a mind control situation that made me scared of you.” 

“But if I can’t stop. Those words.”

“We’ll stop them all then.”

Bucky laughed at her tenacity. He watched Chanel clear the plates and take the tray to place outside the door. When she sat back on the bed, she wasn't expecting Bucky to shove something in her hand. She looked to see his tags. 

“Bucky.”

“I know that there’s a chance I snap at any moment. As long as someone out there knows those words then I’m not safe. No one is with the Winter Soldier still out of my control. Keep it, I want someone to remember James Buchanan Barnes. I trust you with my life.”

“You know you’re technically active duty right?” Chanel tried to joke. 

“Avengers ain’t the military, _printesa_. I’m a vet from that. Never looking back.”

She put the chain on and tucked the tags under her shirt. Bucky couldn’t help but smile at that, most people if given tags would wear them out but Chanel tucked them in like they were her own. 

* * *

The quinjet made Chanel nervous no matter how much bulletproof stuff they put on her. It didn’t help that Tony discovered the doctor who interviewed Bucky wasn’t the actual doctor— the real man was found dead in his hotel bathtub. Whoever interviewed Bucky was named Zemo, a man that lost his family in Sokovia. A man that blamed the Avengers and wanted to destroy them from within and almost succeeded. But since there was a breakthrough, his only other option was to release Winter Soldiers on the world. It was either bring the fight to him or let the soldiers out— he wasn’t going to stop until the Avengers were over. 

Chanel was equipped with a comm and placed in between several Avengers. The quinjet couldn’t stay on the snowy peak so she had to exit with them but they left her in a hidden corridor and gave her a comm to hear everything. Bucky shoved a small handgun in Chanel's hand before disappearing with the others. 

She listened over the comm to the monologuing and then the sounds of fighting. Chanel couldn’t tell who was winning but considering every Avengers’ breath could be heard in her ear, she knew they were all alive— not without injury, she had heard the crash of Rhodey hit the floor when a soldier took out his legs. And then it got quiet for a moment.

“No.” Chanel heard Tony whisper. 

What she couldn’t see was that despite being engaged in a fight with the other Winter Soldiers, the Avengers couldn’t currently get to Zemo who was in a safe bunker watching the action. Zemo played a video. She heard the constant apologies of Bucky and the quiet sobs of Tony. And then even Tony’s sobs stopped as Chanel heard the first word of Russian come from Zemo’s mouth. 

_“Longing.”_


	8. Chapter 8

The sound of Steve’s shield banging against the safe bunker that Zemo was becoming louder with each footstep Chanel took to where they were. _**Rusted.**_ Everyone else was too preoccupied fighting the soldiers to help him get to Zemo or help get Bucky out. **_Seventeen._** Chanel was pushing herself to go faster. _**Daybreak.**_ Bucky froze before running up to the bunker that held Zemo and punching at him with all his might. **_Furnace_**. Chanel had taken a wrong turn but quickly rerouted herself. **_Nine_**. Even Wanda couldn’t stop the soldiers, they fought in too close combat to let her get a chance to use her powers. **_Benign_**. Tony had moved Rhodey into a corner, the only thing he could manage to do after seeing the video of Bucky killing his parents. **_Homecoming_**. Peter barely missed the punch of a soldier and Clint became very protective over the obviously young Avenger. 

“Chanel, what the hell are you doing?!” 

Tony yelled, finally snapping to attention. **_One_**. Bucky turned around in shock hearing her name. 

_“Freight car.”_

“No!” the others yelled. 

“Attack them,” Zemo said. “Kill them all and then yourself.” 

Steve, being the closest, braced himself for a blow that never happened. For whatever reason, Bucky didn’t move. 

“I said attack them.”

Chanel didn’t stop looking at Bucky. Maybe it was dumb but she showed him the gun and threw it away from her, back into the hallway she came from. Chanel grabbed the knife and slid it across the floor. Bucky didn’t make a move to grab it, not right away. 

“Soldat?” she asked, tentatively. 

“готов соблюдать.”

“I don’t speak Russian.”

“Ready to comply,” he switched to English without a second thought. 

“Will you help us stop the rest of them? The other Winter Soldiers,” she added quickly as Chanel watched Bucky’s eyes scan the room trying to figure out who the ‘us’ was versus the ‘them’. 

Bucky nodded and began to work with Steve. They didn’t have time to process Chanel screaming ‘no’ as she watched Zemo shoot himself. His revenge had failed and he wanted to be with his family. If his plan had succeeded, that was always the ending for him— returning to his family. Chanel focused on the rest of the room to see they had put down all the other soldiers. Bucky stood straight and everyone was on eggshells. They watched him pick up the knife and place it in her palm. He waited with no expression for Chanel's next instruction. 

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to turn it off. I don’t know the word… come back, Bucky.” 

He didn’t turn off but followed her to the quinjet that was brought back around. 

“What’s wrong with him?” Ross asked as they stepped off of the quinjet. He was surrounded by guards and other heads of security from different countries. 

“Zemo said the words,” Steve explained. 

“Why isn’t he locked up? He’s still—”

“Under her control.”

“Chanel?”

“Zemo said the words and Buck turned around and followed her.” 

They watched the way Ross cringed and everyone knew Steve had somehow just said the wrong thing. Before they could stop it, Chanel and Bucky were being arrested. The most Ross could do was tell them to be gentle and put them both in the same cell. 

“The other countries won’t compromise,” the Secretary said as he came into the office room. “Now they want to know if she’s really who she says.”

“You’re fucking kidding, we have a paper trail of her.”

“Up until the safehouse. They want the negotiation and the hearings all at once, get it all done over the next few days of testimonies.”

“Testimonies?!” Nick had to step in. 

“It’s a trial. They can say what they want and pretend it’s a hearing but I know those people. It’s my job to be in and out of those circles. This will be a trial and then hearing, then renegotiation all tied in one. All publicly broadcast. I’m sorry. It starts tomorrow, we don’t even have time to prep her.”

“This is bullshit.”

“I’m aware.”

“And Barnes?” Ross asked. 

“Right now, she might have to speak for both of them.”

There were many suit options laid out for her. Chanel went with whatever they suggested, Bucky being matched in a complementary color. Even after sleeping, he was still in Winter Soldier mode which required them to be escorted by armed guards into the UN conference room. 

Chanel sat down at the panel table, Bucky next to her. She spoke for what felt like hours before they declared it done for the day— she wasn't sure what could be done, so far she started at when she met Sam and had only gotten up to Bucky seeing her for the first time in the marketplace. But Chanel also recognized it was late at night. 

The Avengers watched Chanel and Bucky’s cell on the cameras, T’Challa had raced back the minute he heard. The blue prison jumpsuits were ridiculous to them but right now they were fighting against the whole UN. Even the Secretary knew that the Accords needed to be redone, if this was the thanks they gave Chanel then maybe they were all wrong as well. Tony wanted to be pissed at Bucky, even end the Winter Soldier but he wasn’t going to be like the UN. He wasn’t going to ignore but actually listen and he was struggling but trying to come to the understanding that it was out of Bucky’s control. Besides, Tony couldn’t continue to be mad as he watched Chanel struggle so hard to crack Barnes even just a little bit. 

“Soldat?” 

He looked up from his dinner at her. She had learned in the quinjet that was all he seemed to respond to sometimes. Chanel didn’t know what HYDRA did to him specifically, they took careful and strange notes. But it was clear Bucky wasn’t allowed to speak or speak that freely. 

“I didn’t say the words but you listened to me. Why?” 

Bucky didn’t answer but finished eating. He wouldn’t get on his bed either. The Avengers watched Chanel sigh before getting on her cot, Bucky sitting on the floor with his back against it. He looked at her face and just stared until confirming her eyes were firmly shut and her breathing had evened out to a slow rhythm. He stopped looking and settled down a little more, closing his own eyes. It continued like that for days two and three. 

Ross felt comfortable knowing that a lot of the general public was on Chanel and Bucky’s side. Did that mean the countries would be? No. But even governments were susceptible to public influence and approval. They continued to watch her and Bucky in the cells every day up until the pair went to sleep. 

* * *

Day four was the last day of the hearing and they had moved on to renegotiations of the Accords, the verdict of what she said would be decided after that. So until then, Chanel and Bucky were stuck in their cell. 

“We have the breakthrough.”

Everyone turned at Tony’s words from the paperwork of the Accords back to the camera monitors. Bucky had pulled away when Chanel moved to his metal arm. She frowned and reached for his arm again. He let her grab his hand this time. 

“Soldat? Will you answer me?” 

Chanel never gave Bucky orders only asking questions to try and keep him in control, even if it was only performative. She squeezed his hand, knowing that the censors in the metal could feel it. 

“Yes.” 

Chanel blinked in surprise. The others watching in the office room completely abandoned the Accords to watch. Ross had them zoom in to focus more on the two. 

“Why did you listen to me?”

Bucky blinked. He looked down in thought before meeting Chanel's eyes again. 

“I trust you with my life.” 

The monitoring room couldn’t have gotten more silent. Rhodey sat up straighter. 

“Is he saying he gave her control?”

“He knew Zemo was going to turn him so he did the best he could,” Sharon said. 

“Buck’s always been a fighter.”

Chanel pulled the tags from underneath the jumpsuit. “Do you recognize these?”

“I gave them to you.”

Sharon looked at the monitors and nodded absentmindedly while watching Bucky. “He used his last bit of free will to tell the soldier that she was in charge and no one else.” 

“Do you know who you are?” Chanel asked him. 

“The Asset.” 

“No. Do you know who you are?”

“The Asset.” 

“No! No.”

Chanel was trying to keep her voice calm but she was struggling. They watched her squeeze Bucky’s hand. He removed his hand from hers and wiped the tears with his thumb, taking care to be extra gentle with the metal hand. There was still no expression in his face. Everyone in the monitoring office knew that move wasn’t something the Winter Soldier would do. 

“She’s getting somewhere,” Nat said, not believing. “Barnes might be with us.” 

She looked at Bucky when his hand fell from her face. 

“Do you know who you are?”

“The A— Soldat?” Bucky asked, slightly confused. 

“Bucky. You’re Bucky. James Buchanan Barnes of the 107th.” 

She watched the shift in Bucky’s eyes flash briefly when his fingers tapped against hers in the door knocking pattern. She stood up abruptly. Bucky’s eyes stayed on hers as she faced the security camera of the cells. 

“I need Bucky’s notebook! I need the binder with his 1940s notebook and a pen!” 

“Do we have that recovered from their apartments?” The Secretary asked. 

They sent an assistant to scour the storage room for her binder that had Bucky’s notes transcribed. The UN knew they were on thin ice when it came to Chanel and Bucky so they let Ross and S.H.I.E.L.D. give her the binder. She balanced the binder on her legs and took Bucky’s hand. 

“I don’t really know what the point of starting this is,” you began to read the first page. “But Clark—”

Chanel felt Bucky’s hand tap the pattern on hers and she circled the word ‘Clark’ and dogeared the page before continuing reading. They watched as she continued reading, pencil tapping along the binder as she seemed to wait in anticipation. Chanel finished more pages before getting to the part about Captain America. 

“Is the clown—”

A second tap of the pattern that resulted in her circling the word and dogearing the page again. 

“What is she doing?” Sam asked. 

Nick smiled. “Her job.” 

“She’s trying to figure out Barnes’ decoding,” Nat said. 

“Your historian,” Ross started. “You picked a good one. I can see why HYDRA had her watched.” 

They went back to negotiating the Accords while Chanel worked on Bucky. The general public wasn’t as interested in the contract talks, and neither was the press. Every question in the conferences after the meetings were about her and Bucky. The UN was trying to finish the Accords quickly and get back to her hearing— and it looked like they were swinging mainly in the Avengers’ favor. Despite Sokovia and everything else, people generally felt safer with the Avengers around. 

Chanel had relentlessly read Bucky’s journal until she had gotten all the words, or what she hoped was all the words since she had reached the end of his journal. Writing down all the words on another sheet of paper, Chanel began to organize them into every sequence she could think of. Failing miserably with the first few when she was only greeted with the icy stare and the answer of Soldat when Chanel asked Bucky who he was— he very quickly picked up that saying asset made her very upset but soldat, while the wrong answer wouldn’t make her emotional. 

“Okay let’s try this one. Clown, 107th, dame, life, Clark, hard ground, howling, sniper, radio… do you know who you are?”

“Do you know how to speak Romanian yet?”

The binder went flying as Chanel flung herself into Bucky’s arms. He gently traced where he could see the chain of his tags around her neck. Bucky pulled on the necklace lightly and clutched the actual tags in his hand before dropping them. Ross ordered them to get them both out of the cell and into the monitoring office where the rest of the team was after they saw it. 

Sam hugged Chanel as she entered the room, Steve quickly behind offering lots of thanks. Since day one, Chanel was a defender of Bucky as much as he was and for that Steve was forever grateful. She and Bucky sat down at the table, both requesting tea when asked for a drink. 

“How did you know?” Ross asked Chanel.

“He grabbed my hand when I said 107th. The Winter Soldier is blank and random but Bucky Barnes was a real person. They needed personal words to bring him back, Bucky’s journal was the only thing of his HYDRA could’ve had at some point. I just had to figure out the order.”

T’Challa vouched for her and Bucky at the hearing and even the UN couldn’t dispute it. There was no evidence to start a real case. She was no agent for anything and Bucky was a prisoner of war. Instead of getting to go back to she and Bucky’s quiet Romanian life, he took up the offer from T’Challa to see if Wakanda could do something about his programming— only if she came with him. Steve and the others promised to visit as much as they could when they weren’t on missions. 

“This is General Okoye,” T’Challa introduced them to a woman who was waiting on a ship. 

She shook Chanel's hand and smiled. “You come at a lucky time, in the next two months is T’Challa’s official coronation.” 

Chanel watched in awe as the ship entered the Wakandan forcefield, the place no longer looking like a third world jungle but one of the most advanced cities she had ever seen. T’Challa patted her on the shoulder. 

“It never gets old.”


	9. Chapter 9

Chanel slipped her hand in Bucky’s as T’Challa led them to the lab in the palace. He knew they were good guys but scientists still put Bucky on some sort of edge. The tapping pattern of her fingers on his hand was a calming lullaby. Bucky didn’t even think she was aware that she was doing it. 

“Chanel, Bucky, this is Shuri. Head of Wakanda’s Science and Technology Department.”

“And our idiot king’s sister,” she said the minute T’Challa turned the corner and left the lab.

Chanel laughed as she shook her hand. It was clear that Shuri was probably too young to be in charge of Wakanda’s science but that made Chanel like her more. She had to be wicked smart in order to pull that off. 

“Mr. Barnes, I assure you we will do everything to make your experience comfortable. May we examine your metal arm?”

Bucky nodded. He removed his hand from Chanel's and hopped onto the examining table. Shuri pulled over her rolling chair for Chanel to sit and watch them work. They detached Bucky’s arm and he looked like a weight was lifted off of him. He answered their questions as best as he could and went in for the initial MRI scans. 

“It’s complicated, HYDRA was not very neat in what they did but I suppose that was the point,” Shuri started. “But don’t worry Mr. Barnes. It wasn’t good enough to stop us. However we have to warn you that there will be side effects.”

“Side effects?”

“We can’t get rid of the Winter Soldier, just combine him with Bucky. Undoing your programming will undo the blackout feature. It’s not a guarantee but there is a high potential that the Winter Soldier memories will slowly seep into your own.”

“I’ll remember every fucked up thing I’ve ever done.”

“At no fault of your own. But we understand if you no longer want to do this.”

“No, doc. I’m here for this.”

“One more thing. It would only be for a few weeks, no more than four truly but we would need to put you under. The procedure works best if you are in cryo.” 

Bucky tensed up. Chanel knew that this would be the make or break factor for him. He nodded solemnly and let them lead him towards the chamber. Despite it being much sleeker than HYDRA’s chamber, Bucky’s breath still quickened as he saw the fog of ice roll out. 

“Hey, hey, Bucky look at me.” 

He turned to face Chanel. All the other scientists gave him the space he needed but he wasn’t calming down. Bucky was taking constant shallow breaths in but not really breathing out. He looked at the chamber behind him, shaking his head. 

“I need you to order me to do it,” he said, looking Chanel in the eye. 

“What? Bucky, no.”

“I can’t do it. I— I can’t go back in that thing unless I’m told to do it.” 

“I don’t even know the Russian…”

“That’s a lie. I know you’ve seen and heard them enough… please.” 

The last word came out as a pained whisper. Chanel broke when she looked at the pleading in his eyes. It was for him. Chanel watched the panicking stop as the emotion slowly faded with each word. 

_“Freight car.”_

“Ready to comply.” 

“Please get into the chamber, Soldat.” 

Shuri placed a hand on Chanel's arm once the scientist finished hooking up Bucky’s chamber to their monitors. 

“You did the right thing,” Shuri said.

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“He will be okay. Would you like to set up your office on my spare workbench? You can watch us work on him.”

“Thank you, Shuri.”

Chanel became the lab’s cheerleader. Whenever she needed a break from her work, she would roam around the tables and sit while one of them explained whatever they were working on to her. Chanel had returned to her mini office space when T’Challa came in and set a bunch of boxes on her desk. 

“What is this?” 

“Wakanda never opened up to the world so we keep all our documents here. This is only the past few kings and War Dogs’ records for now.”

“Oh thank you for more work.”

Shuri was the only scientist who would openly laugh at Chanel sassing T’Challa but the others had their heads down to hide their smiles. T’Challa decided he liked it better when she didn’t know him that well and were generally quiet. Chanel picked up the first record and opened it.

“Xhosa. I swear I never get just English anymore, do you have a dictionary for me?”

“Box to the left.”

“Do you want these only transcribed and decoded or can I give it to the UN? Or just S.H.I.E.L.D. division?” 

“Just transcribed and decoded.”

Chanel nodded, expecting that to be his answer. Not many countries liked for her to send their work to the UN immediately, lots of secrets. She had come to grips with the fact that she forever had a target now that she knew the secrets of damn near every government in the world. But what made Chanel feel better was the fact that anyone after her wasn’t being sent by any government officials— not unless they wanted all of their secrets spilled. It felt weird working under S.H.I.E.L.D with their new position, since they weren’t assigned to a single country neither was she. T’Challa watched Chanel set down the record and walk over to Bucky’s chamber. 

“I’m going to lunch, Buck.” She tapped twice on the small window of his chamber and then once. “Does anyone want anything?” 

A few scientists shook their kimoyo bracelets to indicate they’d send her a message. While Chanel was there, Shuri insisted that she wear the work attire of the office which meant kimoyo beads for everyone that worked in the lab. 

“Does she do that often?” T’Challa asked when Chanel left. 

“Update him every time she leaves the lab?” a scientist spoke up. 

“It’s kind of cute,” another one said. “Whenever she leaves us those sticky notes, she puts one on his cryo container as well.” 

“Brother, when will you find yourself a girlfriend like that?”

“She and Barnes aren’t together.” 

The lab got quiet as the tinkering slowed. They looked at Bucky’s calm face in cryo and around at each other before the humming of a working lab started up again. 

“Chanel and him… then you really have no game, bro. Ah, out of my lab!” Shuri ushered T’Challa away before he could argue with her. 

* * *

Okoye looked behind her after seeing one of her Dora Milaje smirk. Chanel was standing in an ankara print dress with matching headscarf, clutching a big journal to her chest. She had gone to find T’Challa or Queen Mother Ramona in regards to a few pages of the War Dog journal from 1993 that she had started. When she couldn’t find them Chanel headed back to the lab, taking a different route. She stumbled upon the Dora Milaje training and couldn’t draw her eyes away. 

Chanel went wide-eyed as Okoye bounded over to her, realizing she had been caught. The Dora Milaje laughed as she shook her head when Okoye pulled her over towards them. She was cute to them. The historian. Someone with a lot of importance but couldn’t fight for shit. But they respected Chanel— not everyone had to be a fighter to make a difference. 

“How are you?” they greeted. 

“I’m good, thank you, I didn’t mean to interrupt your training. You ladies are just so incredible. I was actually looking for T’Challa, I can’t seem to find any of these words in the Xhosa dictionary.” 

Chanel opened the journal to show Okoye. She looked at the few words Chanel pointed to, having no clue how the woman had the patience to read the faded letterings. 

“See, the only word I could find was Jabari.”

“Jabari?” one of the Dora Milaje spoke. “I’m from the Jabari tribe. It might not be Xhosa, we also speak Igbo.” 

“Igbo?” Chanel repeated to make sure it was what she actually said. 

“Yes.”

“Okay, thank you. I’ll get that dictionary from the palace library then.” 

“How is he? Mr. Barnes?” Another woman asked Chanel. 

“Bucky is doing well, Steve and Tony stopped by last week. I need to call Steve to come back after their mission. They’re taking him out this evening, I busted out my best dress for this.”

Chanel made the Dora Milaje laugh as she twirled around, the clinking of dog tags rang out— the tight bodice of the dress made it impossible to tuck them in. When she spun, the bottom of the dress flew up enough that they could see the serrated knife in its familiar place of the strap on her thigh. It wasn’t because she didn’t feel safe in Wakanda, on the contrary Chanel knew no one would hurt her here. She had just gotten so used to wearing it that it became an accessory as common as a wristwatch. 

“Not that he’ll even notice,” she said with a snort after she had stopped twirling. 

“He’ll be out in time for the official coronation.” 

“Yes!” they smiled as Chanel's face lit up. “I’ve read about it in a few journals now, so fascinating. I think Buck will like it too… and the new arm.”

“New arm?”

“I thought he might not want the one from HYDRA and Mandla said he could draw up the plans and make one.” 

“Mr. Barnes is lucky to have such a thoughtful girlfriend.”

“Hmm? Oh, Buck’s not my boyfriend,” Chanel said nonchalantly. She adjusted the journal in her arms to hold up the kimoyo beads in her line of sight, reading the text on the hologram. 

“I’ve got to go, they’re taking him out now.”

The Dora Milaje watched her walk quickly towards the lab with a newfound pep in her step. Even Okoye took a few minutes out of training to try and figure out Chanel's words. She and Bucky were joined at the hip and they had assumed it was because of a relationship.

The only person Bucky focused on when they opened the cryo chamber was Chanel sitting at Shuri’s work station. She waited patiently for the scientists to run their checks and do what they needed to do. He was calm as they went through everything. Bucky was already making peace with the Winter Soldier memories, acknowledging it happened but trying not to let the guilt eat him. Bucky came up to Chanel with a goofy expression on his face. 

“If I hear one more description of your dinner, Chanel.”

“You could hear me? Why did no one tell me he could hear me the whole time?”

The lab erupted with laughter. The scientists had to have a little bit of fun and Chanel was an easy target the first time they caught her talking to Bucky in the cryo chamber. 

“The dress is nice. Heels? You get all dolled up for me, darlin’?” 

“So this is Bucky Barnes. Were you such a flirt in the 40s?”

Bucky picked up the dog tags around her neck. “Only for a pretty dame like you.”

He smiled as she huffed out a mix between a laugh and a scoff. The scientists tilted their heads and Shuri met eyes with her brother. T’Challa shrugged; Chanel and Barnes insisted they were just friends— both of them confused why anyone would think otherwise. Everyone accepted that there was a lot of time she and him spent together with no one else that probably blurred strange lines and boundaries. The two wouldn’t tell anyone about Romania as if it was some secret that needed to be kept. 

“Speaking of 40s…” 

“I already don’t like where this is going,” Bucky said in a joking manner. 

“Will you take me dancing? My grandpa talked about it a lot, seems like fun.”

“Miss Jefferson, he needs time to heal and relax. Maybe after we give him his new arm,” one of the scientists said. 

Bucky looked to Shuri. “Can I give her one dance? I’ve kind of owed her since—”

“Since you threw Steve into my bus in D.C. Made me do your notebook but won’t teach me Romanian, won’t take me dancing—”

“ _Printesa_.”

“Yes?”

“So you do know one word of Romanian.”

“We actually have an American jazz bar,” T’Challa offered. 

“I’m from the 40s not the 20s.”

“Old is old, Bucky. Let’s go!” Chanel turned to Shuri. “I promise just this once and then I’ll let him rest.”

“I have a feeling that even if I said no, you two would sneak out of the apartment. Just this once.”


	10. Chapter 10

Just like Romania, Chanel and Bucky lived near each other. Unlike Romania it wasn’t two separate apartments but a simple two bedroom. 

“You used my room as a storage closet?”

Bucky watched as Chanel moved the boxes from his room. She had lots of paperwork and journals that putting them in Bucky’s room was easier than properly organizing. He picked up the boxes as best as he could with one hand and moved them into her room. 

“What’s yours is mine,” Chanel said with a shrug as justification. 

“What’s yours is also yours.”

“How’d you know?”

“I call you _printesa_ for a reason… oh, there’s clothes in here.” Bucky looked at his closet. 

“Yeah, I bought you some stuff for when you got out,” Chanel called from her room. 

“I hope they fit, I had to go with measurements from your Winter Soldier uniform.” 

“Thank you,” Bucky said as he stepped into the living room where Chanel now was. 

She had ditched the heels and kimoyo beads, now that she was out of the office, but was still in the dress and matching headscarf. Now that the two were in the same space, Bucky wondered if he would ever see her in a state of dress down. 

“We should get ready now before the evening gets too late.”

One thing Bucky didn’t know about Chanel was the tendency to turn showers into a concert. He could hear her over the water of both his and her showers. Bucky rifled through the clothes, his eyes landing on a sharp suit. Clearly, she had this dancing idea in her head for some time now. 

“Chanel!” 

Chanel stepped into Bucky’s room. He gave her an up-down when she entered. Her dress, paired with kitten heels, was a little longer than normal and in a more 40s silhouette. She had her makeup done, full face he wasn’t used to seeing and dark lipstick, hair setting in big hot curlers. The tags were abandoned on the dresser in her room— leaving just exposed collarbones. 

“I can’t exactly tie a tie with one hand.” 

Chanel stepped up to Bucky and took the tie in her hand. He could smell the perfume with her right under his nose. She dragged her bottom lip between her teeth as she tied it. Chanel pulled at the knot and stepped back, the tie wasn’t good. She tried again before sighing and throwing the tie on Bucky’s bed. 

“It’s cooler without a tie anyway,” she said as she undid the top button of his shirt and fixed the collar. 

T’Challa was nice enough to provide them a driver for the evening. Chanel and Bucky exited the car and stepped into the club. The music was nice and the atmosphere was crowded but not too much. The pair sat at the bar to start. 

“So how are you, really?” Chanel asked him after receiving their drinks. 

“Relieved. I can’t really remember anything about the Winter Soldier right now, it’s like I’m going slowly through each year gathering memories. Just like before stepping into cryo, when I started the journals.”

“What year are you on right now?”

“Finally remembered the mission with the Howling Commandos right before the one where I fell off the train. I know the HYDRA years are coming soon, I just hope it’s not too bad.”

“Well, I’m always a door away if you need me.”

“ _Știu, printesa_.”

“What’s that mean?” Chanel asked, taking a final sip of her drink. 

“What do you think it means?”

“Thank you?”

“Not even close.”

“Alright?”

Bucky shook his head. “One more try and I tell you.”

“I know?”

Bucky held up his glass and smiled. “Right on the money. Second lesson. I know is _stiu_.” 

“Second lesson? What was the first?”

“ _Printesa_ … I like this song.”

“You know this?”

“Used to sneak on down to Harlem to go dancing sometimes.”

“And how did they take it?”

“Thought I was causing trouble the first time. Then one Dorothy Brown interrogated the hell out of me, bought me a whiskey and taught me all the dances she knew… ‘lindy hop like your little white friends one more time and I won’t let you back in the club’, tough dame that one.”

Chanel laughed before hopping off of the barstool. Bucky asked what she was doing when she pulled at his arm. 

“You promised me dancing.” 

He let Chanel pull him towards the floor when a slower song came on. Bucky stood there awkwardly, unsure what to do. Taking a girl dancing was nothing new for him but he had both his arms when he did. Bucky didn’t know about the new arm she had in commission for him. 

Chanel hummed in thought for a minute before wrapping both arms around Bucky’s neck. He placed his hand around her waist and the two swayed to the music. After two songs, the music picked up again slightly. Bucky wasn’t willing to let her step off the floor. He promised Chanel dancing, he was going to figure out dancing. He grabbed her one hand like normal. 

“Wrap your hand around my shoulder.”

She did as he said, wrapping her hand around him like a hug instead of just placing it on the front of his shoulder. It was a little hard but Bucky could still lead in a dance. Chanel smiled as Bucky spun her around. 

“I would dip you but I don’t think that’ll work out.”

“What if I dip you?”

“You know how heavy a super soldier is darlin’?”

“Mmm, okay maybe no dipping.” 

He chuckled and spun her around once more. When the song ended, Chanel and Bucky decided to go home. She had tried to phone Steve but whatever mission they were on, he couldn’t be reached. Bucky said it was fine and he would phone his friend again every few days until he picked up. 

Bucky thought he would finally see Chanel dressed down and was surprised when he was wrong. He had heard the kitchen sink run and decided to pretend to get a late night snack but she was still in the dress when she got a glass of water. After that, he didn’t hear her door open for the rest of the night. 

* * *

“How was work?” Bucky asked when Chanel came back. 

She still chose to spend half of her working hours at the mini office in the lab. Part of it was because she enjoyed the distraction the scientists brought. The other part was to give Bucky his space with the therapist who came to their home. So, Chanel ate breakfast in the morning with him and then headed to the office where she stayed until after lunch. Today, the therapist was still there— their session running long. 

“It was fine, I’ll be in my room so you can continue. Don’t forget T’Challa’s official coronation is in three days when he comes back from his mission. I think Ramonda wanted us to stand with them.” 

“ _Înțeles_ , _mulțumesc_ _printesa_.” 

“Understood, thanks?”

“She’s learning.” 

“She’s trying, I’ll stop interrupting your session now.” 

Chanel closed her room door and put on some headphones before going back to work. The headphones weren’t necessary according to Bucky but Chanel insisted. She wanted him to feel that he had complete confidentiality with his therapist. What she didn’t know was that Bucky didn’t care, he already trusted her with so much. Her being in the room wouldn’t stop him from being able to tell his therapist everything. The phone rang and Chanel picked it up seeing it was Nick. 

“Yes?”

“Do you have any information on a project called Weapon X? We think something might have pulled up on our radar.”

“Nick, I’m going to need a little more than that for an idea of where to start. Can you find me a year or maybe a name attached?”

“I’ll try but can you start looking?”

“Of course I can. Is this a mission report or file for S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Understood, Director.” 

When the therapy session ended, Bucky knocked on Chanel's door to let her know it was over. She opened it and went back to her bed. He would usually leave her alone for one more hour to finish her work. Bucky flopped onto her bed, flesh hand hitting the back of her calf. He was very touch starved and at some point when Chanel had opened up more to him, he took the opportunity to have a hand on her whenever he could— usually tapping the familiar door knocking pattern. Chanel closed the notebook and sat up on the bed, the warmth of Bucky’s hand leaving. Now that it was the two alone in the house, she finally removed the thigh strap and knife, setting it on the bedside table. 

“Where are you now?” 

Chanel would always ask Bucky where he was in the memories. It was going slow but the scientists were worried that there would be a trigger and they’d rush in all at once, more than Bucky would be prepared for. So Chanel asked him and kept track of the dates as best as she could. Bucky wrote down everything in his journal as well, but that because he wanted to be able to give S.H.I.E.L.D. an extensive firsthand account of what happened.

“Training, alone right now. I think my first small mission is coming soon.” 

Bucky looked away.

“Hey, whatever it was, no matter how bad. It isn’t you. That wasn’t a life you chose, Buck.” 

“I know, but it doesn’t change that it happened.”

“I’m not a therapist but I do know what always makes me feel better.”

“Yeah?”

Chanel extended a hand which he gladly took as she led him to the kitchen. The sink was already clear since she and Bucky didn’t like the dishes to stay in the sink too long. He confusedly put his head into the sink like Chanel said while she ran to his bathroom to get his shampoo and conditioner. 

“My momma used to do this for all of us. There’s something really nice about having someone else wash your hair.”

Bucky hummed as her fingers worked through his hair, nails gently scratching at his scalp. He listened to Chanel talk, trying to switch between English and Romanian the way he did, while she went through the whole routine. 

* * *

Children laughed and greeted Bucky as he walked to the lab. He had gotten used to the familiar shouts in Xhosa calling him ‘White Wolf’. Why a wolf, he wasn’t sure but it had become his new name. He was carrying a bag that held his and Chanel's clothes for the coronation. Ramonda insisted on the two not only being there but being dressed for it like the rest of them. They had been sent to a tailor a week ago and he had gotten a call that the garments were done. 

“ _Printesa_!” Bucky called as he walked into the lab. 

Chanel looked up from her work, instinctively smiling when she saw him as if they didn’t come from the same house. Bucky gave Shuri a hug when he passed her station and then dropped the bag onto Chanel's desk. He leaned over her on the other side of the desk, watching as the woman finished a paragraph switching constantly between the Xhosa dictionary and the notebook. She was writing up a report for T’Challa about that particular notebook since it belonged to a general. 

“Give me a word,” Chanel said without looking up from the work. 

“Hmm, _iubire_.”

“You taught me love already.” 

Words like that from Chanel and Bucky made the scientists at their work stations shake their head in disbelief as they watched him pull at his tags until she looked up from the work— he had yet to take them back. Even Shuri couldn’t check herself anymore. Someone wanted to set the two up on a date but no one would invade the friendship they had. 

“When?”

“Thursday.”

“ _Atunci_ _ce_ _vrei_ _să_ _înveți_ , _printesa_?”

“Give me a hard word.”

“ _Încoronare_.”

“And that means?”

“ _Astăzi, este încoronarea lui T’Challa_.”

“Today is T’Challa’s coronation?”

“Pretty soon you won’t need me to teach you.”

“I’ll always need you, Buck.”

He sat down and waited for Chanel to email the report. She got up with him to head into the main part of the palace to change. 

* * *

Chanel and Bucky stood a bit behind the guards on the boat that held the royal family as it moved down the river. Her head was bobbing to the drumming. Shuri pulled her in and forced Chanel to dance with her and Ramonda, showing the American the simple foot movements. Chanel and Bucky looked in awe as the water was sucked up and revealed a magnificent cliffside— Wakanda never ceased to amaze them. They followed to where Okoye led them behind Shuri and Ramonda. 

“I, Zuri, son of Badu present to you T’Challa, the Black Panther.” 

They cheered along with the others. Watching T’Challa lose his powers for the ceremony seemed painful. Chanel and Bucky were a beat behind everyone, not knowing the customs like they did, but picked up every movement and when to cheer pretty quickly. Chanel watched as each tribe declared they wouldn’t challenge. She didn’t think they would, T’Challa was the best they could ask for. That’s when they heard grunting and chanting from a place she couldn’t identify. Chanel watched as big men in white body paint came from one of the caves. 

“Are they Jabari?” Shuri asked her mother. 

“Yes.”

So these were the famous Jabari who Chanel had read about but, aside from the few Dora Milaje that came from there, had never seen. The largest of them stepped up to T’Challa and Zuri before turning to face the people of the cliffs. 

“We have watched and listened from the mountains! We have watched with disgust as your technological advancements have been overseen by a child who scoffs at tradition!” 

M’Baku got closer and Chanel instinctively grabbed Shuri as the Dora Milaje blocked her with their spears. Chanel moving to hold Shuri, moved M’Baku’s attention to her and Bucky briefly. 

“And have brought outsiders to our precious kingdom. Now you want to hand over it all to a prince who could not keep his own father safe. We will not have it!” 

They watched Zuri place T’Challa’s panther helmet on him. The Dora Milaje left their position to join him. Chanel had read about the challenge but honestly didn’t think she would see it. She watched with bated breath as the two men fought, especially after M’Baku knocked off T’Challa’s helmet. It was brutal. Their raw power was incredible. Chanel cheered with everyone as T’Challa held M’Baku in a thigh grip until the bigger man tapped out.


	11. Chapter 11

W’Kabi smiled at Chanel warmly as she took the apple from his hand to feed the rhino. T’Challa had gone to him for important business and she asked to tag along when she heard about the war rhinos. The creature was so sweet as he tickled her hand when his mouth grabbed the apple. Chanel stayed out of the two men’s way, petting the rhino while they talked. She heard Okoye’s voice on the hologram created by T’Challa and W’Kabi’s kimoyo beads. 

Chanel was called into the throne room as well by Okoye, standing behind T’Challa’s throne while the other leaders of the various tribes sat on their respective stools. Okoye called her in because a man named Ulysses Klaue popped up onto Wakandan radar. 

“He plans to sell the vibranium to an American buyer in South Korea, tomorrow night,” Okoye explained. 

“Klaue has escaped our pursuits for almost thirty years. Not capturing him is, perhaps, my father’s greatest regret. I wish to bring Klaue back here to stand trial,” T’Challa said. 

The leader of the Merchant Tribe shook her head. 

“Wakanda does not need a warrior right now. We need a king.”

“My parents were killed when he attacked. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what Klaue took from us. From me,” W’kabi said.

“It’s too great an opportunity to pass,” Okoye agreed. “Chanel, can you find anything in those records about Klaue? Any non-Wakandan records as well?” 

“I’ll search my databases right away and send them to you.” She quickly raced out of the throne room. 

* * *

“You called me in, _printesa_?” 

Bucky entered the lab. Chanel directed him to her seat and covered his eyes. 

“ _Am o supriza pentru tine_.” (I have a surprise for you)

“ _Supriza_?” 

She could feel Bucky’s eyebrows raise underneath her hands. Chanel nodded before realizing he couldn’t see her. Bucky felt the sudden influx of light again and looked down at the workstation to see a box with a shiny new vibranium arm— the face of a wolf carved in white on the outer bicep. He smiled as the scientist who had helped make it, Mandla, took the arm out of the box and helped fit it on Bucky. 

Mandla explained how it was made to be easy for Bucky to detach if he wanted to but also the arm wouldn’t pop off randomly. Bucky ran through all the tests to make sure it worked properly. The first thing he did was pick Chanel up and spin her in a hug, her heel coming off as he did. 

“ _Mulțumesc_.” (Thank you)

“ _Cu_ _plăcere_.” (You’re welcome)

Bucky’s fingers stayed a little too long on Chanel's waist before he pulled away. He bent down to help her put the shoe back on before leaving so she could finish work. Chanel looked up to see Shuri and T’Challa— who had just come in for his new panther suit— staring at her. 

“What? Oh, did you and Okoye get the file I sent on Klaue.”

T’Challa nodded. 

“Are those Barnes’?” he asked, pointing at his own neck. 

“Yeah.” 

“Hmm,” T’Challa said before turning to his sister for his new suit.

Chanel took the evening off while T’Challa and them went on a mission. Partly because if they needed any information from her, she wanted to be able to pull it up without any of her other work getting in the way. The other part was Chanel just wanted to be at home. Bucky came out of his room and stared at Chanel before blinking rapidly and rubbing at his eye. He turned around, closed the door, and then opened it again. 

“What?”

“You. In something dressed down, I can’t believe it.” 

“Believe it, Buck.”

“What changed?” he asked as he sat on the couch. The minute he sat down she moved to put her feet in his lap and laid down fully. 

“I realized you lived with me, there’s no point in always having to be a ten in my own house. And I know you’re not judging me.”

“The sweats are cute, I’m loving the llamas on your pants.”

“Shut up.” Chanel sat up abruptly. “Do you want to stay here? In Wakanda?” 

“I didn’t really think about that.” 

“Your therapy sessions are almost over and once T’Challa brings in Klaue, I don’t necessarily need to be in Wakanda for anything else he needs. I was thinking maybe it’s time for us to go home. We’ve been on the run for so long.”

“Go back to New York?”

“Only if you want to. I work from home so it doesn’t matter to me.” 

“I haven’t been back in so long… okay. When my sessions are over and you feel you can leave T’Challa, let’s go back.” 

“Alright,” she said as she laid back down. Bucky started tapping on her legs as Chanel turned up the radio for both of them to listen to. 

* * *

Chanel looked up from the commotion of the lab as Shuri ushered in with T'Challa, a man she recognized, Everett Ross. She got up to see what was going on. Shuri informed her of the gunshot wound and she watched them slide Ross into a chamber to take care of him. 

“Chanel?” T’Challa called her. “Have you read my father’s journal? Was there anything about my uncle, N’Jobu?” 

“N’Jobu?” she flipped through her records. 

“Only that he was assigned to a War Dogs mission in Oakland and your father mourned his death. King T’Chaka said he felt gravely responsible, if he hadn’t sent N’Jobu there in the first place. That’s all I have, sorry. Maybe Zuri had whatever you’re looking for? Your father mentions him being on the trip to Oakland.” 

“Okay, thank you.” 

* * *

“Oh, hello, Ross. You’re awake,” Chanel said as she stepped into the lab, carrying a new box of journals— the other tribes felt comfortable giving their journals over to her after T’Challa approved, not that she was done with the War Dog or king journals yet. Ross was standing at the window admiring the technology Shuri was showing him. 

Ross waved a ‘hi’ before they all turned their attention to the hologram of Okoye that popped up on Shuri’s beads. 

“Where is T’Challa? His kimoyo beads have been switched off.”

“We aren’t joined at the hip Okoye, unlike some people we know,” Shuri joked. 

“A man showed up at the border who claims to have killed Klaue.”

“What?”

“W’Kabi is transporting him, as we speak, to the palace.” 

Chanel left her desk to stand next to Shuri and see what Okoye was talking about. She sent something to Shuri to pull up on the big screen. 

“An outsider?” Shuri asked. 

“A Wakandan,” Okoye answered. 

Chanel and Ross both shook their heads. 

“He’s not a Wakandan,” Ross said. “He’s one of ours. Erik Stevens.”

“Killmonger. He served with my brother, said he wrapped up confirmed kills like a video game,” she said. 

* * *

Bucky brought Chanel lunch so she was in the lab with him and Ross, who wasn’t allowed to leave the lab. He knew that the two had been staying there but Ross didn’t see why he had to stay in the lab while the pair, Bucky more specifically, was allowed everywhere. Bucky joked that Wakanda could only have one White Wolf at a time. Chanel was enjoying their company when Nakia ran into the lab with three blankets in her hand, looking panicked. 

“The king is dead.” 

That made them all stand up. 

“Come with me, unless you want to join him.” 

She threw them all blankets and they followed her out of the palace, grabbing the journal Chanel had at her desk and T’Challa’s necklace sitting on Shuri’s workbench. Chanel was suddenly glad that she had the knife on her, not knowing what was going on but sure she might have needed it. 

Ramonda held up a weapon when she saw Ross step out of the bushes first but lowered it once she saw Chanel and Bucky with Nakia. Nakia told them all to wait in the forest while she left to go somewhere. Chanel handed Shuri her brother’s necklace, watching her tuck it away for safekeeping. 

“So where are we going again?” Ross asked. 

“We’re taking the Heart-Shaped Herb to Jabariland,” Naki answered. 

The day had broken as the small group walked almost the whole night, only stopping for three hours of sleep. Chanel was the only one in a short dress and the cold was starting to bite at her legs. Bucky took off the blanket he was given and wrapped it around her, shrugging when Chanel gave him a look— super soldier serum meant he wasn’t as cold as the rest of them. Ramonda stopped them all, calling for Nakia to take the herb instead of giving it to the Jabari. They were all shushed as Jabari men surrounded them. Chanel stepped closer to Bucky as Ramonda held tight to Shuri. 

“Look down,” Ramonda told the group as the Jabari circled tightened to the point that they were almost touching them. 

After meeting with M’Baku, he led them out of the throne room and into some place deeper in the mountains. Chanel saw a large red tent and when they revealed the flap, she gasped spotting T’Challa’s face. Ramonda, Nakia, and Shuri ran to his sides while Chanel stayed towards the flap with Bucky, M’Baku, and Ross. 

“Is he breathing?” Nakia asked.

“He’s in a coma,” M’Baku answered. “Barely clinging to life.” 

“Why do you have him in the snow?” 

“It is the only thing keeping him from joining the ancestors.”

“We need to get him to my lab. I can heal him there,” Shuri said. 

“Take him. He’ll be dead in seconds.”

“The herb.” Nakia fished it out of her pocket. 

“But we have no healers here.” 

Ramonda looked at the herb Nakia placed in her hand. The Jabari healers wouldn’t know how to grind up the heart-shaped herb and she was debating whether she wanted to take that risk. Chanel shivered as she threw off both blankets in order to use her arms and flip through the journal she had been clutching since leaving the palace. Chanel spotted the page with the picture of the herb on it, the journal was Zuri’s. T’Challa had asked her to look at it after finding out about N’Jobu. 

“Queen Mother,” Chanel said as she walked over to her. 

She bent down and showed her the book. Ramonda grasped Chanel's cheeks in both of her hands uttering a thank you before taking the journal and reading it as she ground up the herb and mixed it with the correct spices. 

“We are calling upon Bast, we are in a women’s prayer house now. Out, out.” 

Chanel stood up and ushered M’Baku, Ross, and Bucky out, closing the flap of the tent. M’Baku looked on at her with respect as she stood with her back to the tent, making sure no man entered. It wasn’t her religion but Chanel called upon Bast with the women inside the tent. M’Baku stopped Ross who was going to offer her his blanket from getting closer. Chanel was shivering as she closed her eyes with her head tilted towards the sky, mumbling words in poorly pronounced Xhosa for T’Challa’s health. 

“ _Printesa_ , stay with Queen Ramonda,” Bucky said as T’Challa planned how to stop Killmonger. 

“And let you go fight? Bucky, Killmonger has more confirmed kills than the Winter Soldier.” 

Bucky tight-lipped. “I never said all my kills were recorded. They’ve done so much for me, I can’t let them fight without even offering help.”

“Okay, then—”

“You’re no fighter, Chanel. Please stay with her. I want you safe.” 

Ramonda placed a hand on Chanel's shoulder and she nodded. She and Ramonda followed the Jabari men when Chanel stopped and turned back to hug Bucky. She removed the knife from the thigh strap and shoved it to his chest, his hand covering hers as he took it.

“I want you back to me, Soldat, alive.”


	12. Chapter 12

Steve hugged Bucky as he and Chanel stepped off of the quinjet. The Avengers’ compound was very impressive. Tony and the others escorted the two around, giving the grand tour. Chanel actually liked that everyone stayed together. Of course it was easier when each room was practically an apartment. She was also grateful that no one new was added since they had been gone— she had shed her more quiet ways with the team, especially after having to always ask Shuri or the Dora Milaje for help with translations; but Chanel was still an introvert at heart and new people in her intimate settings made her feel some type of way. Chanel was the only non-Avenger, S.H.I.E.L.D. worker that would be staying in the compound housing and not just leaving when office hours ended. 

“So we have Buckaroo on Steve’s floor and Caliber, Nat and Wanda called you on their floor.” 

“Oh, we’re not in the same apartment?” Bucky asked. 

“You two?”

“It’s just we lived together in Wakanda, we both kind of assumed.” Bucky shrugged. 

“We can always change that, Pepper and I are together on the top floor. What size bed, I’ll have F.R.I.D.A.Y. put in an order. Queen? King? I suggest California King, that’s what we have.” 

“Um, we still need two rooms,” Chanel said. “If it’s work don’t bother, Tony, it’s fine.”

“Yeah, I think I can take two floors up to see _printesa_. Not sure if she can handle the walk though,” Bucky said, cheekily.

“Love you too,” she said before muttering under her breath. “ _Cur_.” (Ass)

“ _Ce_?” (What)

“ _Hmm, nimic_.” (Hmm, nothing)

Chanel squealed when she felt herself suddenly in the air, looking at the floor. Bucky had lifted her over his shoulder. The tags almost hit the floor as she kept dangling but Chanel managed to catch them in time. 

“ _Bucky, pune-ma jos_!” Chanel said, lightly hitting his back— no real feeling behind it. (Bucky, put me down!)

 _“Ia înapoi ceea ce ai spus_.” (Take back what you said)

“ _Nu_.” (No)

“ _Atunci nu te pot da jos, printesa.”_ (Then I can’t put you down, princess)

“Buck, everyone can see up my skirt.”

Instead of putting her down, Bucky adjusted his hold and used his free hand to cover the space where anyone could potentially see up Chanel's dress. He turned around to Nat and Wanda, asking what floor they were on. Chanel screamed as Bucky jostled her a bit. 

“Let’s go find your room, _printesa_.” 

The other Avengers watched the pair disappear towards the elevator down the hall. 

“They do know what friends means, right?” Wanda asked. 

Steve laughed. “If they were together, Buck wouldn’t hesitate to let everyone know. I’m just glad she’s got Buck back to the one I remember.”

* * *

Tony helped Chanel set up her office very easily. She worked anywhere and everywhere but needed a place to store boxes and loose papers, not really wanting it all in her room. Bucky started training again, deciding to take Nick’s offer and sign to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. Much to Sam’s joy, Bucky at least tried to run at his pace or closer to it instead of being like Steve who constantly lapped them. Because she lived with them, Chanel let the rest of the Avengers see her a little dressed down. 

Since she and Bucky had returned, Tony wanted to throw a party to celebrate the homecoming. Rhodey told them it was better if they just rolled with it so Chanel was on the way to the mall with the women of the team to buy a fancy dress. The men were also there too in the suits department, Tony insisting new outfits were necessary for everyone. 

“I’ve been to a few military balls but nothing quite as fancy as this.”

“Yeah, that’s Tony for you. Too much money, no clue what to do with it,” Nat said. 

“Charity?”

“Already has five.”

“Oh, wow, okay.” 

Sharon and Wanda found their dresses, leaving Chanel, Nat, and Maria to keep looking. Chanel's hand brushed along so many dresses. A few she liked but most weren’t her taste. While Nat was trying on dresses, Chanel excused herself for a minute from the group. Following the store employee’s instructions, she took the escalator to the lower floor where the suit department was. The men in their boxers tried to cover themselves as best as they could when her face peered from around the corner— except for Thor. Chanel rolled her eyes. 

“You boys aren’t that much of a sight, please.”

“You’re not looking at us even a little bit, darlin’?” Bucky leaned against the door frame of the dressing room, while the others still kept themselves covered. 

“Lots of military men look like that. Just another set of muscles. Anyway, what color is your tux?”

“They showed me a dark green one, might go with that or just a black one. Is that helpful?”

“Yeah, I can’t find a dress but I figured I could start by matching it to your suit. I think we should complement each other.”

“Why?”

“Cause I like when dates match.”

“And you just knew I was going with you, _printesa_.”

“Do you know anyone else?”

“I know Stevie, Sam and I have been getting pretty cozy on our runs.”

“Hmm, okay, Buck.”

“Is that the sound of jealousy?”

“Of who? Sam and Steve having to stare at your ugly face all night instead of me?”

“I love you, too.” 

Bucky lifted up the tags around Chanel's neck, pulling on them slightly that it moved her forward and closer to him. She had to place her hands on his torso to balance. Chanel patted Bucky’s abs as she stood back up with proper balance. 

“Okay, I’m gonna go find my dress now, I like the green idea, so you boys can stop huddling in the corner like school children.” 

Bucky pulled Chanel back in for a hug, her back against his chest, threatening to keep her hostage in the dressing room. Chanel laughed as she struggled to get out of his grasp. 

“Eww, you’re half naked,” she whined. “Let me go get my dress!”

He laughed but let her go. She playfully hit him and then bounded out of the dressing room to go back upstairs and continue looking now that Chanel had some sense of direction. The others looked at Bucky once Chanel had left. 

“So, Caliber?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, guess I’m being forced to go with the green tux now,” Bucky huffed out a laugh while putting on his street clothes. 

They all looked at each other, that wasn’t what they meant. Either Bucky was thick skulled or avoiding. Someone was going to have to take one for the team. Clint sighed, deciding he would be the one to do it. 

“How long have you two been together?”

“Me and Chanel? Ha, we’re not together. You know you’re not the first to say that, think I heard one of the scientists say it while in cryo. Weird.” 

“Yeah…” Steve wasn’t sure how to go about what he wanted to say next. “I mean, I think we just all notice you two wouldn’t look bad together you know.” 

“Hmm, I mean I guess. She’s just… my person, trust her with everything. Ha. Together, crazy. You guys are funny.” 

They stood there as Bucky chuckled and walked out of the room, shaking his head. 

The girls clapped as Chanel exited the dressing room. She was in a body hugging champagne colored dress, the neckline plunging. Nat forced her to do a spin and added a pair of heels she thought would go great. Chanel looked at herself in the big mirror, nodding in approval. 

“The slit in the dress is nice,” Chanel said. 

“Makes you look hot.”

“I just like that I can still wear the knife.”

“Right, Barnes’ knife,” Maria said. “So when did you two become a thing?”

“We didn’t?”

“Oh, no?” 

“Does Bucky look like my boyfriend?” 

“You two are just so close.”

“Of course, he’s my guy. Ha, together, that’s a good one. K, let me take this off and we’ll head to check out.” 

The other four women looked at each other in disbelief as Chanel headed back into the dressing room. Nat shook her head. Chanel left the changing area and met up with the boys downstairs to pay for the dresses and suits. While in line, Chanel was behind Bucky. He felt her head hit his back and reached behind him to pat her back as best as he could. Chanel slipped her hand into the metal one hanging at his side. 

The team watched as the two walked ahead of them out of the mall and into the parking lot. Chanel was holding both of the bags while Bucky's arm was around her shoulder, tapping the door knock pattern. He stopped tapping her shoulder and moved to tap on her temple just to mess with her. Chanel swatted his hand the first two times before stopping, forcing him to stop too. She tapped the door knock pattern back to him, on his forehead. 

“ _Mai bine fugi, printesa_.” (You better run, princess)

The team watched her throw the bags at him and start to run to the car. Bucky shook his head and picked up the bags before running after her. His pace was clearly a lot slower to give Chanel a chance; but he caught up to her anyway and grabbed her. She took the bags back and the pair walked like normal. 

“So those two are idiots, agreed,” Tony said. 

“Agreed.”

* * *

Of course, Chanel had heard of Stark’s infamous parties but there was something about being there in real life. Despite living at the compound, Tony made them all enter from the outside via limo. He also forced the team to go through the big gates and the security checks like everyone else just for the formality of it all. Everyone knew who the Avengers were so pictures and a red carpet were a must. At one point, they used to hate it, especially Nat and Clint who started as secret spies. But the team accepted it and left secret missions to the CIA or other units and now dealt exclusively with HYDRA and other threats that required more than just regular humans to stop— of course there was always cloaking technology if absolutely needed. 

Bucky didn’t expect people to want to talk to him but lots of people were intrigued by the Winter Soldier. More than once throughout the night he was pulled from Chanel's side by some senator or even a socialite. However, no matter how many people pulled him away, almost every slow dance was reserved for Chanel. 

She was sitting at the bar alone while Bucky was talking to someone. Chanel smiled at the bartender, thanking her for the drink she handed her way when she felt a hand on her back. She turned to see who it was. No one Chanel knew. The man talked and Chanel tried she best to have a conversation but it was a struggle, he was clearly very outgoing and since Chanel didn’t know him she felt herself retreating again. Sam rushed in to save her, making her get up for a dance. 

“It’s great to have you back.”

“It’s nice to see your face again, Sammy… and eat your breakfast.”

He laughed. “Did you just miss me for my cooking?”

“Would you be upset if I said yes?”

“A little.”

“Then it’s totally not.” 

He smiled and dipped her. Sam was always so much fun to be around. On some days Chanel wanted to curse him for ever bringing her into this Avenger world but at the same time she wouldn’t change it for the world and that was all because of Sam. 

“Can I be honest with you, Caliber?”

“Is it bad?”

“No, but it’s about you and Bucky. I know you two can’t see it but we do, the entire team. You two have something between you guys.”

“Yeah, I mean we’re f—”

“No. Friends is Clint and Nat, me and Sharon, you and me. Even Tony and Nat in their own way. You and Bucky go past that.”

“Alright, Sam.”

“Just think about it.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Both Chanel and Sam knew she probably wasn't going to think about it at all. Bucky was just her Bucky. Sam finished their dance, it being the last dance of the night. Happy and the other bodyguards helped clear out all of the other guests until it was just the Avengers on the balcony. There was no music, just a small fire and the conversations of the team. 

“Manchurian Candidate.”

“Yes, Tony,” Bucky said with a roll of his eyes. 

“I think your princess is knocked out.”

Bucky looked down at where Chanel's head was laying in his lap, he was gently stroking her cheek with his hand. The team collectively took a sip of their drinks to refrain from saying anything as they watched Bucky lean in close enough that his nose brushed against hers. Chanel reached her hand up to tap the side of his cheek twice. Before she got out the last tap, Bucky tapped her cheek instead. 

“You tired?”

It was phrased as a question but Bucky knew the answer already. In the prime of Winter Soldier days he was a lot like Chanel, instead of being the usual extroverted Bucky from the 40s. Lots of people could be draining. The rest of the team was still on high from the party and the mingling but she was officially on empty. 

“Tony, why are your parties so big?” Chanel asked, turning her head to where she assumed he was but still refusing to open her eyes. 

“How else am I supposed to go, Caliber?” He chuckled as Chanel groaned in defeat. 

“Do you want me to take you up, now?” Bucky asked. 

“Nah, enjoy your talking. Just take me up when you leave the balcony,” she mumbled as she turned over and wrapped herself around him as best as she could in the tight dress. The last thing Chanel heard was Bucky apologizing to Natasha about the Red Room. 

Once they left the balcony, Bucky scooped Chanel up and carried her towards the elevator. 

“Can I stay in your room, Buck? I’m tired.” 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, I wouldn’t want to wake you with the nightmares.”

She sat up in his arms as best as she could. “Nightmares? When did this happen?”

“First day back in the compound. The fight in Wakanda triggered it all at once.”

“Bucky, are you okay?” 

“I’m fine, I’ll be fine. Didn’t want to worry you, _printesa_.”


	13. Chapter 13

Nick had managed to get Chanel a year that might be in association with Project X so she pulled all her journals and documents that were two years before and after that year. Based on the limited information Nick knew, Chanel knew this was going to be a decoding situation. There was absolutely no way this Project X would be written so plainly— unless it was in some secret notebook that wasn’t in her possession. Nat knocked on her open door, Chanel rarely closed it during the day and told everyone they were free to come in whenever. 

“You busy?”

“With this, I’ll stay busy. Did you need something?” 

“Red Room, 1979. Looking for an instructor that worked around that time, he might be linked to something I’ve got now. About to head to the quinjet but was hoping you had anything for me.”

Chanel set down the physical book she was looking at and left her room. Nat followed her to her office on the lower floors, near Tony and Bruce’s lab. Once Chanel finished working on a document, she tended to move it from her laptop to the large drives on the computer in the office. Nat snorted as she read the file name Chanel pulled up. 

“IKEA furniture?” 

“What? They all needed code names.”

“No one’s dumb enough to steal from the girl with her thumb over the large red button.”

“No, but they might try to steal each other’s secrets through me.” 

Nat nodded and watched Chanel click on the file. She watched actual IKEA furniture pictures pop up as the thumbnail. Chanel clicked on a clock picture labeled Burgundy Time— the words rhyming with ‘79. Nat watched her type in a password once the picture opened and the scrambled document looked normal. Chanel printed out the papers, paper clipped them, and handed them to Nat. 

“Thank you,” Nat said as she took the papers. 

“Is that all?”

“Yep, this is perfect. See you when I see you.” Knowing Natasha, it would probably be less than a week. 

Now that Nat had dragged Chanel out of her room, she sat on the balcony to finish her work even after the lamps turned on. Sam had to drop off dinner otherwise she wouldn’t have eaten. Chanel tried her best to keep regular office hours— starting when Sam, Steve, and Bucky went on their runs and ending when the lowest level agents left the main compound for the day. If a journal was almost done or a country needed the document urgently, she would work a little longer but Chanel tried not to consume herself in it. This night was not one of those nights, Romania wanted something sent as soon as possible. 

She stared at the words. Chanel had translated as best as she could but there were some complicated words that she didn’t know and even in context couldn’t figure out. Looking at the time, Chanel sighed and got up. Waking Bucky up wasn’t something she wanted to do but she kind of had to. Between her and him, Chanel ditched all the Romanian dictionaries and it was quicker to just use him anyway. F.R.I.D.A.Y. let her off at Bucky and Steve’s floor. 

The lights were off from what Chanel could see underneath the door but she heard noises from Bucky’s room anyway. Chanel hoped he was watching something and was already up so she wouldn’t feel bad for waking him. She knocked but got no response so Chanel just entered. Bucky wasn’t awake but constantly moving his head from side to side. His face was contorted in pain, mumbles incoherent to where she wasn't even sure if it was English. Chanel rushed to the tangle of sheets. She shook his shoulder but got no response. Bucky was deep in the nightmare. 

“Bucky! Buck,” Chanel called out his name. 

The sting to her cheek was unexpected. Chanel had little time to process the sharpness of the slap before Bucky had her pinned to the bed, his metal pressed against her throat with all his weight backed against it. Clawing at his hand, Chanel was gasping where she could for air. If Nat and Sharon took some time to throw off a super-soldier, she would take forever— and forever was time Chanel didn’t have. 

She called out Bucky’s name as she tapped on his arm in the door knock pattern. His eyes widened as he saw reality in front of him and not the dream world. Chanel took in large gulps of air, clutching her throat and coughing when Bucky shot off of her. He ran out of the room and returned in record time with a soft ice pack and glass of water. 

“I’m sorry, oh my God I’m sorry,” he muttered over and over as he held the pack to her face while she drank the water. 

“I came in for the translation.” Chanel pointed to the document. Even after the glass of water, her voice came out kind of hoarse. 

Bucky picked up the manila folder on the bed next to her. He found Chanel a pair of his shirt and shorts before leaving to grab another ice pack and water. Bucky stayed on the floor translating the missing words while Chanel slept. When he finished, he set the folder down and looked over to her sleeping form in the bed. His eyes flitted to the two now warm ice packs sitting on the nightstand. Bucky ran his hands through his hair, staying awake on the floor for the rest of the night. When Chanel woke up, Bucky was nowhere to be found in his room. She stretched and took her time to get out of bed. 

Clint was back from seeing his family and decided to cook breakfast for everyone. Bucky was sitting at the island, eating cereal instead of waiting for Clint to finish cooking. 

“You look like shit,” Clint said.

“He looked even worse on our run.” Steve took a plate from Clint. 

Bucky mumbled into his cereal. “Don’t want to talk about it.” 

Chanel shuffled into the common room where everyone was eating breakfast, smelling cooking that for once didn’t belong to Sam. Spotting Bucky, she walked up to him and dropped her forehead on his back. Bucky froze. 

“I’m tired.”

His spoon clanked against the bowl as he abruptly stood up and walked out. Chanel looked over in confusion. 

There was no time to really focus on that morning… or the several mornings of Bucky’s weirdness, since Chanel was working. She shot up from her chosen workspace for the day of the couch, reading the decoded note on the page one more time before zooming downstairs to Nick’s office. 

“Sabretooth! Do you have anything military or otherwise named Sabretooth? That has something to do with Project X.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“I’ll try to find you more but I bet wherever you find Sabretooth, we’ll find more notebooks.” 

“Miss Jefferson, good work.” 

Chanel nodded at Nick and went back upstairs to an empty common room, this was usually training time for the Avengers. The team liked to train at hours that normal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents wouldn’t be there, it was easier for everyone since the team liked music but the agents needed to be able to hear their instructor. Bucky had come into the common room, having forgotten to get water. He mumbled a ‘hi’ when he saw Chanel and turned on his heel as fast as possible. She sat down, dejected, and went back to the notebook looking for anything else Project X or Sabretooth related. 

After a few more pages Chanel shut the notebook with a ferocity and took the elevator up to the training room, her foot tapping the whole way up. The team looked up from their respective training areas as they heard the door slam. Chanel made her way to the ring where Bucky and Nat had been sparring. 

“James Buchanan Barnes! Why are you avoiding me?”

“Trouble in paradise,” Tony mumbled. 

Nat stepped out of the ring not wanting to be in the middle of whatever. The team probably should have left but curiosity and lack of personal boundaries got the best of them. 

“ _Nu te evit_ ,” he said as he wiped his sweat off with a towel. (I’m not avoiding you) 

“ _Da, sunteti_.” (Yes, you are)

“ _Printesa_ —”

“ _Nu, nu mă printesa dacă nu îmi vei spune de ce_.” Chanel watched him take a step back when she stepped forward. (No, don’t call me princess if you won’t tell me why)

“ _Pentru că te-am rănit_ ,” Bucky mumbled. (Because I hurt you)

“ _Ce_?”

“ _Pentru că te-am rănit,_ ” he repeated louder. 

“Bucky, please—”

“No, don’t brush it off.” 

“I’m not but you won’t talk to me. How can I even brush it off if you won’t talk to me?”

“Why would you want to even look at me?”

“Don’t start that.”

Bucky pulled away when Chanel reached for his hand. She sucked her teeth and grabbed his hand again. He stiffened and looked down at where the two of them were connected. 

“Chanel…”

“You don’t get to shut down and walk away from me! How am I supposed to feel about that? We don’t do that to each other.”

“I wasn’t trying to upset you, _printesa_.”

“Well, you did. You hurt me and not physically… I thought you knew I was here for you, Buck…” her voice got quiet. 

“I know.”

“Then why—”

“Because I can’t watch myself hurt you again!” Bucky raised his voice. 

“You hurt me more when you won’t talk about it with me. Me! The only other person involved in what happened. I care about you!”

“I care about you too!”

Bucky grabbed her face in both his hands. He rested his forehead on hers.

“Shit, I care about you,” he said a bit above a whisper, if the whole team hadn’t been silent they might not have heard it. “I care so much I don’t want to see you hurt.” 

Chanel placed her hands over his. “Then talk to me, I want to work it out with you, please Bucky.” 

“Okay, okay.” He nodded. 

Chanel's phone rang in a ringtone reserved for S.H.I.E.L.D. 

“I’ve gotta go, we made a breakthrough on Project X.”

“Alright, go work. I’ll see you later in the common room.”

“Promise?” 

“I promise.”

Her phone rang again. Chanel pulled herself away from Bucky and answered it. Giving everyone a goodbye wave, she headed back down to her office to see what Nick had dug up for her. Bucky watched as Chanel walked off before exiting the ring to go to the weights where Tony and Maria were.

“It’s not really any of our business,” Steve started. “But what the hell was that about?”

“She was right, I shouldn’t have pushed her away.”

“Did something happen? Are you two okay?”

“Nothing that’ll happen again,” Bucky said, ending all conversations about the altercation the team just witnessed. 

He gave Steve and Sam a look, communicating he’d talk more about it later to them but didn’t want his complete business aired out to everyone. It wasn’t exactly something he was proud of.

* * *

Bucky sat on one end of the couch as far away from Chanel as he possibly could. The rest of the team had about three ounces of respect and humility between them but it was enough for them to decide not to enter the common room until F.R.I.D.A.Y. said Chanel and Bucky had left. 

“I don’t think there’s much to discuss about the actual situation, Buck. We both know what happened.”

“Are you okay?” 

He didn’t see any significant markings or bruises from where he was but Bucky wasn’t sure if it was because there weren’t any or if Chanel was covering them with makeup. 

“Hmm mmm. I went to Dr. Cho after, she said everything looked alright.”

“Just alright?”

“You’re a super soldier with a metal arm. Alright is sometimes the best you can hope for.”

“It was a nightmare and it just felt so real when you grabbed me. I couldn’t escape them. My eyes were open but I didn’t see you just the HYDRA lab.” 

“What changed? I know I didn’t throw you off.”

“Third time you said my name and the tapping. I’ve never been so grateful for a dumb knocking code.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, Buck. I can’t act like it didn’t happen and that you didn’t scare the shit out of me. But I’m not going to punish you for it. We just have to adapt, again. No shaking you awake from a nightmare.”

“Just tap and stay still. Better yet just let me go through it.”

“We both know I can’t do that.”

“Fine, but just tap.”

“Just tap.”

“Can you change your schedule a little bit?”

Chanel scooted closer to Bucky and he didn’t move away this time, even letting her slide her feet under his thigh.

“My working hours are the most flexible on the planet.”

“The beginning of team training, just the first part.”

Chanel nodded seeing Bucky physically relax when she did. He patted her legs about to get up when Chanel grabbed his hand.

“This doesn’t change us, Bucky, right?”

“It… it doesn’t have to.”

“Okay, because I meant it that I care about you.”

* * *

With the new gap in her work, Chanel met Bucky the next day like he asked at the shooting range on the third sublevel. 

“You said a twenty-two?” He asked as he inserted the clip into the gun.

“Hmm mmm, my sister showed me.”

“I want to see.”

He grabbed the big noise cancelling headphones and placed them on her head, attempting not to ruin Chanel's hair at the same time. Bucky stood off slightly to the side but in the same booth as her where he could see the target. It wasn’t a moving one, child’s play. Chanel clicked off the safety and emptied the small handgun. Just like she told him in the interrogation room, Bucky was staring at eight shots to the chest and seven to the head. 

“Can you handle bigger?” 

“Why would I… Bucky what is this?”

“I’m not letting it happen again. You’re right, you’re not Nat, Sharon, or Maria. And you don’t have whatever Wanda has.”

“Thanks?”

“And I don’t expect you to be if you don’t want but I need you to know how to stop me.”

“I’m not emptying a round into you.”

“The gun’s a last resort but I still want to make sure.”

“Okay, I’ll try bigger. But I’m not carrying those snipers you like so much on your missions.”

Bucky laughed, holding up his hands in defense. “I didn’t think you would, _printesa_.” 

* * *

The team wasn’t expecting Chanel back at the training room. Everyone distinctly remembering her declare that if it wasn’t the yoga studio or the pool, she wanted nothing to do with the exercise room. But there Chanel was, trailing right behind Bucky. He stepped into the sparring ring, lifting the ropes so she could duck in. 

“Any self defense?”

“I’m sure my family taught me something, I just never really paid attention.” 

“Hit me. Hardest punch you can manage to my chest.”

Clint slowed down the treadmill just a little, Maria and Steve angled their weights so they could see better, Sam and Thor turned their box jumps to face the ring. Even Nat and Wanda switched their Pilates positions. Everyone wanted to see what was happening. Chanel formed a fist and Bucky nodded, she might have goofed off but he could see that she had at least learned proper punching form.

“I know you can hit harder.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t… harder… once more.”

The last time Chanel did, Bucky grabbed her fist mid-punch. He gently pushed her arm back and used his other hand to guide her free arm.

“Hard fist to the temple.”

He let go and instructed Chanel to do it again.

“I don’t have to actually hit you hard do I?”

“First session, I won’t make you. Just show me you can do it.”

She punched towards him and when he grabbed her hand Chanel used the other to tap his temple lightly with a fist. He ran the same move a couple of times before moving on. They kept going until the alarm on Chanel's phone rang. Bucky gently held the back of her head, once again resting his forehead on hers. 

“You did good, Chanel.”

“I’m not gonna have to start weight lifting just for a stronger punch am I? Because I don’t really want to. I’ll do the running and maybe a dumbbell but…”

Bucky couldn’t help but laugh. 

“No, I’ll make it work for how you are now. It’s about how you move not how strong.” 

Chanel left with a light wave to everyone to return to her actual work. Sam and Steve already knew and even though he didn’t say it, the rest of the team was starting to have some inkling of what might have happened. 

* * *

They quickly got used to Chanel being there, not that she was for very long. She did have to move her schedule a little more when Clint found out Chanel started shooting because she did archery when she was younger. It wasn’t too much of a bother to include an extra few minutes at the range for him. Chanel also added meditation. Though the team wasn’t sure how either her or Bucky were meditating when Bucky would pull her into his lap. The pair would sit cross-legged like that, his armed wrapped around her middle while she rested her hands on his knees, until the time was up. 

After setting Chanel to a gun he thought sizeable enough to stop him but still comfortable for her, Bucky moved her to moving targets. It wasn’t as clean as first but Caliber was a nickname that rang true. He was almost sure that Chanel would’ve been a sniper if she joined the military like the rest of her family. 

“I’m teaching you how to use that knife properly.”

Bucky applied a small cover to the serrated blade. He modified the moves they had been learning in hand to hand for a knife. Chanel knew she had to learn, if anything just to give Bucky a peace of mind, but she didn’t like how different their reactions were. Every time she landed a move that in a non training setting could seriously hurt him, Bucky smiled softly and proud whereas her heart sank a little. 

The team knew Chanel's little training was almost over when Bucky had asked Nat to show Chanel her signature thigh grip. Something Chanel told both of them she had absolutely no coordination to do and it was instantly modified for her to do if she was pinned to the ground— neither Nat nor Bucky would take Chanel completely saying no for an answer. It wasn’t a lot of moves, the thought was she would never have to use them. But it was the moves Bucky knew he tended to go to first in Winter Soldier mode. And in a sleep like state he probably wouldn’t be fully engaged in real combat. Chanel just needed defense and that’s what he taught. But he still wanted to be sure, so Chanel found herself in the sparring ring for an actual match. The rest of the team unconvincingly acted like they were occupied with their own exercises while side eyeing the two.

Bucky wasn’t using all of his strength but enough that he could actually monitor Chanel was gonna be able to stop him. He pulled back a lot with his metal arm both of them very aware that in a nightmare that might be what he goes for first. Bucky had her pinned underneath him, his hand tight enough on Chanel's throat to feel it but not enough weight to hurt. She used Natasha’s modified move. 

Wiggling her legs out from the gap between Bucky’s, Chanel wrapped them around his torso and pulled him as close as she could while hitting the crook of his arms—focusing more on the flesh one— to get his elbows to bend. Bucky had shown her exactly where his center of gravity laid, hoping that if Chanel could just take him off balance it would give her a chance. It took all her strength but Chanel did teeter him off balance enough that she could place herself on top of him, struggling to keep both his hands above his head and pinned to the floor. Chanel was breathing heavily when it ended. 

“I do good?” 

“You did good, _printesa_.” 

Slowly letting go of his wrists, Chanel sat back eventually letting her own hands comfortably rest on his chest. Bucky smiled. Chanel jostled a little as he sat up, holding her upright with a hand on her back. He wasn’t sure what changed as he watched her tongue dart out of her mouth to wet her lips while she focused on the soft smile that took over the bottom part of his face. 

Or maybe nothing changed, he just denied himself the thought someone would like him on such an intimate level. That he deserved to be seen in that way. Chanel watched him fiddle with the tags around her neck, sensing there was something he wanted to say or do when his eyes stayed on her lips. 

“What are you thinking about?”

“How much I care about you,” he answered without hesitation. 

“Enough to let me keep your tags.” 

“No,” Bucky cupped Chanel's face in his hands. “Much more.”

“Show me.”

Bucky searched Chanel's eyes for any sign of doubt. “Yeah?”

He pressed gently against her lips before deepening the kiss. His hands gently pushed her forward, not liking the large gap between their bodies. When they pulled apart, Chanel sat back and looked him in the eye. She thanked whatever playboy status he had back in the 40s because Bucky was a good kisser. Maybe Sam was right. Because nothing changed when she kissed Bucky, Chanel only realized there had been something missing from the relationship the two already had.


	14. Chapter 14

Chanel kept part of their training schedule. She still joined Clint for the shooting range and then strolled upstairs with him to the training room where Bucky adjusted his schedule so that he meditated first with her after running with Sam and Steve. The team watched as the newly named couple assumed the usual position, Chanel being in Bucky’s lap with his arms wrapped around her middle. But Bucky was the only one meditating. Chanel had a notebook in her hand, scribbling away and trying to decode. Bucky dropped his head to her shoulder. 

“Is this okay?” Bucky asked. 

When Chanel said a small yes, he kissed her shoulder. It was a couple pecks before his lips rested there as he continued to meditate. He always had to ask if any move he made was okay. Consent was a big thing for him after being under HYDRA’s control for so long. Now that they were together every little move he made that he considered intimate, Bucky had to confirm that it was something Chanel wanted. He popped open an eye when he felt the hitch in Chanel's breath, ready to remove his hands. 

“It’s a mutant,” she whispered. “Not just Project X but a Weapon X program.” 

Bucky immediately let Chanel go and the team watched her dart out of his arms. She entered the lab where Bruce was— he only worked out on the weekends. 

“I need your lab notebook from when you first started gamma rays, it’s important, Bruce.”

Dr. Banner looked at the woman, seeing truth in her face. Chanel liked to stay out of her team’s private writings if she could help it— everyone should be allowed their secrets. But what she uncovered, it seemed like it had some dealings in the same wheelhouse as when Bruce first became the Hulk. Everyone had been trying to recreate super soldier serum, never replicating Steve, and a name popped up in the journal. A name that Chanel thought might have worked with Bruce. She gently took the notebook from him, promising to treat it with care. 

Bucky found his girlfriend in her office— Chanel had decided to keep Bruce’s notebook in her office out of professional respect. She smiled at Bucky who was bringing her lunch. Careful not to get food on Bruce’s notebook, Chanel read up into the early hours of the morning writing down everything important. Shutting Bruce’s notebook and locking her office, Chanel made her way up to Bucky’s floor. She opened it to see he was still awake. 

“I’m going to bed, Buck. Goodnight.”

“Hey, come here.” 

When she got close enough, Bucky pulled her to him just to hold her for a moment. He was still worried and Chanel understood so for now they slept in different beds. 

“Goodnight.”

* * *

The Avengers looked at their historian who was standing next to Nick in the briefing room. Chanel pulled up the notes she had onto the large monitor. 

“Weapon X Project. Another failed attempt to create the serum used on Steve. Most of Weapon X was actually shut down, but a few fell through the cracks including Victor Creed also known as Sabretooth.” 

“Sabretooth?”

“The mutations done on him gave him an adamantium spinal cord, and tiger features. We’re talking large fangs, claws on his hands and feet. He’s damn near impossible to locate but I think he’s on a revenge killing spree. Sabretooth sees himself as the decider of justice which involves a lot of blood.” 

“So you want us to bring him back or kill on sight?” Steve asked. 

“Ideally, we would love him for questioning,” Chanel started. “Especially since Weapon X might be a UN area…”

“But in reality, it’s either you come out alive or Sabretooth.”

She nodded. Chanel passed out files on what she had. Based on the kills so far, Victor seemed to be going in a somewhat chronological order and Chanel circled the names on a list that she thought were mostly likely to be the next targets. 

“It’s up to you guys how to tackle the mission but that’s what we have so far.” 

The team nodded as they flipped through the files. One thing about Chanel and her job, their historian was thorough. 

“And I’ll be leaving a little after your mission, I want to find people on the bottom of that list before Victor kills them. So contact might be a bit difficult but if you need anything, try to call. I’ll find whatever you need.”

Chanel jumped when she left her office that night, not expecting Bucky to be sitting on her bed. He just wanted to see her before she went to sleep. Walking over, Chanel laid down next to him. Bucky’s hand immediately went to any part of her skin it could find. She closed her eyes and hummed in content for a moment before opening them to look at him. 

“Do you remember my brother Tyler?”

“The one who left the Marines because his girlfriend got pregnant?”

“Yeah, we missed that birthday but Tyler and Aleisha are throwing a cookout for the family a little before Thanksgiving. You guys should be back by then, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?”

“Do they know…”

“That my boyfriend is the Winter Soldier? Yes, I don’t want to hide you, Bucky.” 

His smile took up half his face when she said that. Bucky moved so that he was over her. Everything with Bucky moved slow so Chanel was surprised to say the least. His flesh hand gently stroked the side of her face.

“Say it again, please?”

“I don’t want to hide you.”

Chanel found Bucky searching her eyes like he always did, as if she would suddenly change her mind and see the monster he used to be. Chanel narrowed her eyes at him and he realized he had been busted. Bucky kissed the space between her eyes and then her lips. 

Her hands reached up to hold his face, trying to pull him closer than he already was. He obliged, lowering his body onto Chanel's but keeping most of his weight on his metal arm. If he wasn’t using both arms to hold her, Bucky preferred using his flesh one. He moved down to kiss Chanel's jaw and then down her neck. 

“Is this okay?” Bucky rubbed the material of her dress between his fingers. 

“Yeah, Buck.” 

He undid the buttons on the front of the dress. When the material pooled at her sides, Bucky kissed down her body. He got up to take off his bottoms before stepping back towards Chanel. He grew self-conscious as she removed his shirt. She had seen him without one before but not intimately and he felt as if he was being burned by every scar she laid eyes on. Bucky melted more into Chanel's touch as she kissed the scar where his metal arm met the rest of his body. His hands moved between her legs, rubbing softly. 

“You haven’t been with anyone recently that I should know about… to be safe,” Chanel said between kisses. Bucky chuckled a little.

“No, darlin’.”

“I haven’t— I haven’t either just so you know.”

He pulled her on top of him, still worried about hurting Chanel. She moaned into Bucky’s mouth as his fingers returned to her center, his metal arm rested on her waist so lightly that Chanel almost couldn’t feel it. 

“James, please.”

His first name coming from her lips spurred him on. Bucky repositioned so Chanel slowly lowered onto his dick until he was buried completely inside. She felt his grip tighten with the first roll of her hips. She kissed him, a bit sloppy, as she kept riding. When her lips faltered and her head dropped to the crook of his neck, Bucky sat them both up so he could thrust into Chanel. He kissed the space between her jaw and ear. Bucky thrusted a few more times before finishing with a soft moan of her name. The two stayed in that position, him still inside her, breathing heavy and deep. 

“Shower with me, before you go to bed?”

“Of course, _printesa_.”

The shower water felt cool against their skin. Chanel switched spots and had Bucky get down so she could wash his hair. After the water rinsed out the conditioner, Bucky didn’t stand up. His hands that were already on Chanel's waist moved her until she was flush against his face. 

“Is this okay?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you never finished.”

“It’s fine, not many—”

Chanel was cut off with the curl of his tongue. Bucky pressed a chaste kiss before looking up at her. 

“Unh unh, _printesa_. You don’t finish, you tell me.” 

Chanel's hand flew to Bucky’s hair as he went back to eating her out. His right hand snaked up her body and pulled a little on her nipple. When she moaned louder, he continued playing with her breasts while sucking her clit. Bucky held Chanel up as her knees buckled and she shook. He kissed her hip bone. He stood back up and kissed her— Chanel tasting herself on his lips. 

“I think I have a new favorite meal… you can’t get all shy on me now, _printesa_ ,” he said when her eyes casted down at his words. 

“Not used to you saying that about me ‘s all.”

The two of them finished washing and Bucky put on his clothes. He kissed Chanel one more time before heading downstairs to his room. Bucky closed her door for her. His hand lingered on the doorknob, part of him wanting to go back in and sleep with her. But the other part was still fearful he would have a nightmare and Chanel would once again be on the receiving end of a nightmare-fueled Bucky. 

* * *

“I smell seasoning!” Sam yelled as the team came in from a low level assignment. 

They entered the common room to see Chanel in the kitchen. Her back was to them as she stirred the vegetables in the large saucepan. 

“I’m making dinner, jambalaya,” Chanel called. “Haven’t made it in a long time but Tyler’s itching for it at the cookout.” 

“You cook jambalaya?” Sam asked. 

“And I’m in charge of peach cobbler. Need practice before the real event.”

Chanel heard Sam mutter something about enjoying dinner for once and felt hands on her hips. The contrast of the coolness of Bucky’s metal arm and the heat of his flesh one was a contrast she welcomed. Chanel picked up a spoonful of finished jambalaya and held it over her shoulder for Bucky to taste. 

“Tastes good darlin’.”

“Yeah?” She asked as she turned in his arms to face him. 

“Still doesn’t compare to my favorite meal,” he whispered so the rest of the team wouldn’t hear. 

Bucky chuckled as he watched Chanel's eyes go wide. Moments when the flirty James from the 40s came out always threw Chanel off and he enjoyed it. He leaned down, eyes looking at her lips. Chanel was the one to close the gap, letting him know it was okay without words, stopping just a brush away from his mouth. Bucky’s kisses were always gentle. Chanel wasn't sure if it was because he was afraid of breaking her or if it was because he was treated so rough and aggressive that this was his chance to be soft. But she didn’t mind either way. 

“Hey, you’re gonna make her burn the food, Barnes,” Nat said. 

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “Let her go man. Kiss her on your own time.”

The two of them laughed against each other’s lips before pulling apart. Bucky left with the others to go clean up and change. Everyone gathered around the table and dug in. Chanel felt proud with every compliment and mumble of appreciation between bites. Despite it being harder to eat that way, Bucky insisted on pulling her into his lap. The team looked on in happiness, especially Steve, at his openness around her. 

Being touched always used to be followed by pain for him and then long bouts of isolation. The first time Chanel dropped her head on his back casually was the start of him realizing it didn’t have to be that way. And since then Bucky just wanted to be physically on her in any way he could— it even trickled down to him casually clapping the other members of the team on the back or accepting hugs from the rest of them. 

* * *

Chanel boarded the quinjet to give the team last minute details about the Weapon X program and updates but they all knew it was just to see Bucky— the information could’ve been sent over the phone. She sat down next to him and held his hand. Bucky brought her hand to his lips. They’d be gone for some time as they followed the trail Chanel set for them. 

“You leave in a week don’t you?” Bucky asked. 

“Mmm hmm, Penny Wills. I think she might know about the others like Victor.” 

“Do you have them?”

“I always do, Buck.” 

Chanel patted the new weaponry under her skirt. The thigh strap had been modified to fit a gun as well as the knife. Bucky insisted when she announced that she was chasing leads. Even though they were just scientists or assistants, he didn’t trust them and wanted her safe. 

“One more kiss for the road?” Chanel asked. 

“Anything for you, _printesa_.” 

* * *

Penny Wills was a nervous wreck when Chanel knocked on her door. Explaining everything to her was more difficult than Chanel thought. She was worried that with every little detail, Penny was going to drop dead right there. She lived in the middle of nowhere practically and after hearing what Chanel heard, she knew why. But for all that it was worth, Penny Wills was very eager to help. She agreed to pull her notebooks and whatever else she could find to give to Chanel— wanting nothing more to do with them and Weapon X any more. 

“Thank you so much,” Chanel said as she accepted the tea. 

“Of course. Sometimes I look back and wonder what we were thinking.”

“You were trying to do good.”

Penny frowned. “I don’t think all of us were there to do good. You’re welcome to stay until you finish, I have a spare guest room.” 

Since no one was in the compound anyway and it was taking time for Penny to pull everything, Chanel started work at her place. Penny’s front porch became her favorite place to work especially since her dog seemed to like to join her. As an older woman, Penny appreciated the company. She had people that visited from time to time but extended visits were always welcomed. Chanel appreciated the fact that Penny was one of those scientists that, despite working for the government, wrote everything plain and without code. Most of her job was just reading and transcribing onto the laptop, only having to stop to decode whenever it was someone else that wrote.

Chanel's phone rang before suddenly cutting off. That was something she was used to around here. Penny didn’t have good cell service. The team would try to call first hoping to get even five minutes with their historian but then ultimately resolve themselves to texting and waiting at least thirty minutes for a text back. Luckily it wasn’t often for mission updates but just to check on her. The phone rang again and kept going so Chanel picked it up. 

“Buck!”

“ _Printesa_ , how are you?”

“Same old, same old. A lot of potential mutants, some not exactly good. Are you guys making more progress than I am?”

“Second guy, dead before we got there. This Sabretooth guy is crazy.” 

“You’ll find him.”

“I’m just worried everyone on that list will end up dead before we do.” 

“Well, I have faith. Anyway, I miss you.” 

“I miss you, too. When we get back I can’t wait to kiss you. Gonna tre—”

“Buck? Bucky?” Chanel sighed as the phone cut off. 

The sun had started going down so she entered back into Penny’s house. The older woman was on her couch knitting, Chanel had taken to joining her for an hour in the living room before they both retired to bed. The next morning, Penny placed a box on the table. 

“I worked on Victor. It wasn’t very long that I forgot. I was assigned to Lucille but then Patterson was on leave for a while and they moved me to the Sabretooth project. This box is his record. The complete copy, at least from my time on him.” 

“This is a gold mine.” 

Chanel opened the box to see the old records. Victor wasn’t the only problem but the start to one. He was attempting to recruit other mutants to deliver his fake justice. Victor somehow managed to stay one step ahead and figure out who was looking for him when and where. Chanel was sure that’s why the team was struggling to get him. She paced back and forth on the porch, hoping Nat would pick up or that the signal was strong enough for her to even get. 

“Hello?”

“Number five on the list.”

“What?”

“Skip the third and fourth guy or send a small group to protect them but you’ll catch Victor if you wait for him at number five.” 

“Okay, Patterson. We’ll watch for him.” 

“Okay, stay safe.” Chanel got the words out right before the phone cut off.


	15. Chapter 15

The dog, Jennie, joined Chanel once again on the porch. Her head in the woman's lap wasn’t making her job any easier but Chanel wasn't about to push the puppy away. After she whined a little, Chanel put down the laptop and scratched her head. Jennie couldn’t get enough of the pets and she was happy to oblige. Chanel switched hands when the phone rang so she could pick it up but still pet the dog. 

“Hel—”

“Chanel! Get the hell out!”

“Steve?”

“He knew we were coming, he knows someone has the list. We’re on our way but get the hell out!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll—”

“Chanel?”

“ _Printesa_ ,” Bucky’s voice came on the line. 

“There’s a car in the forest.” Chanel's voice faltered off. 

The phone was irrelevant as she stared at the two bright circles peeking through the trees. Chanel watched the headlights come a bit closer before stopping. The car was still a distance away, the lights the only thing that she could see. 

“Chanel? Talk to us, what’s happening?”

“He found Penny.”

She heard Steve yell over the line asking Clint if the quinjet could go any faster. Chanel couldn’t move as she watched the lights. Until suddenly the car lights cut off. 

“There’s nowhere to go. She lives nowhere.”

“Hide, _printe_ —” 

Bucky yelled as the phone cut off. The team tried to push the quinjet as fast as possible. They weren’t too far away but it was far enough that if Sabretooth was there, they might not have time. 

Chanel ushered the dog back inside and grabbed Penny. She didn’t have any secret rooms or safehouses and while Chanel knew it, she was hoping to be wrong. All Penny had was a back door. According to the records, Victor didn’t have super hearing. There was a slight chance that the two could sneak out the back. It was the only chance, considering if they hid in the house he would definitely find them. 

Chanel removed the knife from her thigh strap and handed it to Penny. Just like Chanel before Bucky’s mini training session, Penny had no clue what to do with it and Chanel had no time to teach her. She clutched onto the knife as the two ran— neither having time to grab shoes. They heard the loud crash of the backdoor being busted open. 

“Stay here, don’t make a sound.” Chanel pushed Penny down into a ditch and kept running. 

The Avengers landed the quinjet and raced out without even bothering to check that they turned it off. The front door was swung wide open. But as they checked, there was no semblance of life in the house. Nat was the first to the area where the back door was and just like the front, they could tell it had been busted. The team split quickly, some staying at the house while most ran into the woods. 

Chanel heard the footsteps get closer. Her stamina was wearing down and she wasn't sure how much longer the adrenaline could beat out Sabretooth’s speed. The loose branches and rocks in the path were cutting at her feet. She screamed in pain as the claw marks hit her arm. Victor was on her. Running was going to fail but Chanel couldn’t turn and fight either, she was trained to defend herself from a nightmared Bucky not be in an actual fight. She tried to push but it was too late. The shock of getting scratched in the first place had slowed Chanel down. Victor pulled her to the ground, his claws cutting marks into her leg as she was dragged along the forest floor.

“ _Printesa_!” 

Bucky screamed as they heard the gunshots. They reached to see Victor bleeding out on the ground, a cluster of shots to the head and a few littered in other places on his body. Chanel was laying on the ground as well. She dropped the gun as soon as she recognized Bucky, Sam, and Steve. 

“You need to hold him, he’ll heal from it.”

She was in shock but still cognizant enough to do her job as she motioned to Victor. Sam and Steve grabbed Victor’s currently dead body while Bucky tried to scoop Chanel up as gently as possible.

“Bruce! We need medical started on the jet now,” he yelled into the comm. 

Chanel insisted on walking off the quinjet in order to ensure they had Victor locked up properly and to show Penny the guest rooms in the compound. It had been agreed that Tony and the others would help her relocate and bring her records back to Chanel. So for the week, Penny and her dog would stay on the compound instead of holding them up in some motel. 

Chanel was limping and moving terribly slow but the old woman didn’t mind as she followed. Bucky on the other hand was very bothered. The minute Penny closed her door, Bucky appeared from the around the corner— he had been stalking close behind. Chanel jumped when she saw him. He had a habit of purposely making his footsteps louder so Chanel was aware he was there but sometimes the master assassin that he was slipped out. 

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you, _printesa_. Just don’t want you walking more than you have to.” 

Bucky looked at the bandages that were now soaked with blood again. Chanel felt small as he eyed her, it wasn’t flirty but observation. Bucky looked at the blood stains on her dress and something wasn’t adding up. There was a stain that wouldn’t be possible just from scratches on her calf and arm. And then he noticed the dress Chanel had worn wasn’t a dress but a matching two piece set. 

One that Chanel had hiked the skirt up higher when she had seen Steve, him, and Sam approaching to hide the large wound to her lower abdomen. It had taken Chanel longer than she would’ve liked to admit to remember she now had a gun and then having to pull it out without Victor taking it from her. For once Bucky didn’t explicitly ask if she was okay before he reached to pull her skirt back down to its normal level, now seeing the wound that caused the unusual bloodstain. 

“Chanel.”

“I didn’t want to alarm anyone before we got Sabretooth confined.” 

“Darlin’, you can’t do that. At least tell me.”

“I’m sorry, Buck.”

He shook his head and carried her up to her room. Bucky was used to cleaning up after Steve’s fights in the 40s and then sometimes his own injuries when HYDRA neglected to take care of him. He set Chanel down on her bathroom counter after removing the bloodied clothes, leaving her in underwear, so he could clean the wounds properly. He shushed and cooed as Chanel winced with every movement. 

“I know, baby, I know. You’re doing so good for me. I don’t know if this will heal without scars.” Bucky’s voice softened to a level reserved solely for Chanel. 

He carefully washed her and helped her into new clothes. He tied Chanel's hair for her, struggling but refusing to give up, and then got her water. The tears started as she hardcore felt the pain now that the meds Bruce gave her on the quinjet wore off. Bucky was near panicking at this point. He hadn’t seen Chanel cry, not that he could recall— not even when he attacked her in Winter Soldier mode. 

“It hurts, James.”

His first name. She was seriously in pain and he knew it. Chanel looked up at him with wet eyes and Bucky felt as if he was in pain himself. He watched her eyes flit to the side like she was debating something. 

“Will you please stay, until I fall asleep.” Chanel added the last part quickly in hopes of avoiding rejection.

“I think I can do that,” he said as he helped her down from the counter. 

Bucky took off his shoes, realizing Chanel would chew him out later for having walked all in her room with them on— but he was still in his tactical gear. That she didn’t seem to care about since she pulled him towards the bed anyway. Chanel curled up and rested her head on Bucky’s midriff, trying not to be in a position that would wake her up when he had to get up and leave. Bucky watched her breathing even out. He waited another thirty minutes to make sure Chanel was actually asleep before gently setting her head on a pillow and leaving. 

Sam caught him as Bucky entered his room— Sam had switched floors a couple weeks ago, no longer wanting to be on the floor that often stayed empty since it was shared with Thor and Clint. Bucky and Steve were still getting used to Sam’s odd habits of having to get up in the middle of the night for something before sleeping again. Sam couldn’t help the confused look on his face when he saw Bucky not in Chanel's room. But it was all over his face and Bucky knew he owed their best friend an explanation. He wasn’t expecting to have to provide Natasha an explanation but suddenly she came out of Sam’s room as well. 

“I’m just scared I’ll hurt her again.”

“Barnes, we get it. I’m sure she gets it.”

“I know, I just wish she didn’t have to.” 


	16. Chapter 16

While Chanel never told him, Bucky with his hair pulled back was one of her favorite looks. And she was grateful to whatever in the universe compelled him to put it up for the cookout. Despite it being her family, the two of them covered up still. Bucky didn’t want to draw more attention to his metal arm than necessary. Chanel didn’t want to deal with the thousands of questions about the new thin scars on her leg that didn’t heal like her arm so she put on a long skirt instead. Bucky helped Chanel carry the peach cobbler and jambalaya to the backyard where everything was set up. 

Immediately after the food was put down, Bucky was whisked away by the aunties. He looked at Chanel with pleading eyes but she just mouthed a sorry, knowing he was at the mercy of the aunts now. She went to find her brother and Aleisha— selfishly for the baby on Aleisha’s hip and not for her brother. Chanel cooed at her nephew and began bouncing him up and down. She and Tyler exchanged sad but understanding when he told her the baby was named Charles. Their younger brother’s name. 

After reluctantly returning Charles to Aleisha, Chanel joined her younger cousins for their little games. Bucky had been saved from her aunties by the uncles and other males. To be polite he slugged back a beer with them even though it wouldn’t get him drunk at all. Chanel looked over from the mini hula hooping competition that Ray-J and Kailey were making her participate in to see Bucky laughing with her eldest brother, Shawn, and her dad. Despite being the only white person there, Bucky seemed pretty comfortable and Chanel thanked this mysterious Dorothy Brown from Harlem and the rest of that club that let Bucky stay there because now he looked at home in her family. 

She let the hula hoop drop when her stomach grumbled. Chanel fixed two plates, piling a little bit of everything— even extra for the super soldier— and strolled over to the men. Her uncle guffawed as well as some of her cousins that had come over to the larger area of chairs. Chanel rolled her eyes but knew he wouldn’t shut up and soon the words came from his mouth when she got close enough. 

“She ain’t never fix a plate for no one.” 

Yes, before the Avengers she didn’t have many friends that were always around. But Chanel still dated, albeit maybe never as intense as her and Bucky. But she always had a date or boyfriend for the cookouts since she was in high school. And in all those years, her uncle was right, they could get their own plate.

Chanel sat on Bucky’s lap, throwing her legs to the side so both of them could use them as a makeshift table. Bucky didn’t say anything at first but she saw the smirk as he took another swig of his beer. Chanel started to eat quietly, hoping she wouldn’t be the topic of conversation for much longer. Of course that didn’t last. When Bucky set down his beer, he placed a gloved hand under her chin and gently tapped her bottom lip— that never changed about 40s Bucky, he knew how to toe the line of being just appropriate enough in front of family while playing dirty.

“Am I that special, darlin’?” 

Half of Chanel's family laughed at her expense while the other half was swooning over the heavy Brooklyn accent Bucky rolled out. He gave her that smile that made Chanel melt every time and she settled her head into the crook of his neck. At least her embarrassment translated into acceptance for Bucky. 

“You’re not hot in that son?” 

Chanel's great-aunt June motioned to Bucky’s gloves. Chanel watched him shrink back into himself slightly. There was nowhere really to hide his arm. It wasn’t even HYDRA’s any more but a vibranium arm couldn’t stop how he felt when people noticed it. It was still a metal left arm that had made him the Winter Soldier. 

“We all know, boy.” Chanel's uncle lifted his pants leg revealing a prosthetic. “Souvenir from the war. No shame in hiding it, that’s a mark earned in fighting for your country. Can’t say I would’ve rather a postcard but we got what we got.”

The family laughed and Bucky felt his nerves settle. He slowly removed his gloves and placed them in Chanel's bag. Bucky rolled his sleeves up because Great-Aunt June was right, he was hot. The kids awed at the shiny metal and Chanel smiled as she watched her boyfriend swell with pride and happiness. 

Kids had a way of making Bucky realize he wasn’t the monster he still considered himself from time to time. If kids could like him— from the ones in Wakanda that called him White Wolf to the ones at this cookout that were now trying to see how many he could lift on the metal arm— then maybe he wasn’t that bad. 

But even a good cookout was going to have drama and unfortunately it wasn’t because Linda got too drunk and spilled way too much information. It was because of Chanel. Her aunt Ella had come late into the night, when the porch lights came on, because of work. She sucked her teeth as she entered the backyard. Everyone looked around trying to see who would be on the receiving end of Ella tonight, thinking it would be funny. 

“You brought a white boy, Chanel?” 

“Ella,” Chanel's dad cut in. “We all knew she was dating that Avenger.”

“Thought it was that Falcon guy or the one with Stark. Weren’t you in Wakanda for a bit, the king?”

“I was there with Bucky.”

Ella scrunched up her face more, if that was even possible. “Who the hell names their child Bucky?”

“Ella! The boy’s right there.” 

“Whatever, we’re supposed to act all…” Ella looked at Bucky’s arm, putting together the pieces. “You the Winter Soldier one?”

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“From the 40s.”

Bucky’s smile faltered. He knew that nothing he did was going to get on Ella’s good side. Bucky pulled down his sleeve again, trying to hide the metal as much as he could. Everyone tried to ignore the implications of Ella’s last statement. And they could shout it as much as they wanted but none of them knew Bucky growing up, any family that might have served with him even briefly was dead and couldn’t say they saw him once or twice standing up for them. Chanel knew better and because she trusted Buck, a lot of the family did. And Bucky knew himself. But technically none of it could be proven and Ella had hung onto that statement. 

“ _Îmi pare rău_ ,” Chanel whispered. (I’m sorry)

“ _Nu pot câștiga peste toată lumea, printesa_.” Bucky rubbed her back and then buried his face in her hair, something Chanel surprisingly found comforting. (Can’t win over everyone, princess)

“ _Încă îmi pare rău._ ” (Still sorry)

“ _Vrei sa te duci doar la culcare?_ ” (Do you want to just go to bed)

The family watched in quiet surprise at the language switching between Chane; and Bucky. They had known that she had spent time in Romania and that he taught her. But they honestly thought it was just little words mainly pet names, not full on secret conversations. That just made Ella more upset. Romanian. High up on the list of white languages as far she was concerned. 

“ _Putem_?” Chanel asked gently. (Can we)

Bucky nodded. The two of them finished their drinks and Chanel turned to her parents— even though this year was Tyler and Aleisha’s turn to host the cookout, it was held at their parents’ home since it was big. 

“Buck and I are going to bed, it was kind of a long drive here from New York.” 

“Of course honey. Bucky can take grandpa’s old room.” 

Chanel and Bucky stood up. He gave hugs and handshakes to the family— Ella refusing. Chanel hugged everyone and started inside. Bucky noticed Chanel left her bag and went back to go get it, Ella not caring he was a super soldier and could hear was still talking shit. He would’ve just ignored it, it’s not like everyone in the Harlem clubs liked him either back in the day, but it was Ella’s last statements that caught him off guard. 

“What, he don’t want to touch her? They’ve been a couple for how long and he can’t sleep in the same bed with her? Y’all see how he was staring at her, always touching her hair. I’m telling you it’s a fetish, that’s all he’s here for and y’all letting my niece setup to get her heart broke.”

“Ella!”

“You yelling cause you’re all thinking it.”

Bucky didn’t bother taking Chanel's bag to her room but just to the one he was staying in. He was soaking in Ella’s words instead of brushing them off. Bucky started going over his conversation with Nat and Sam. The way Chanel looked at him when asking him to stay and he couldn’t do that. Is that what people saw? That he was using her as some play thing? That he had sex with her at night and then just left? And then Bucky realized that’s exactly what he did. Bucky went to sleep with a sinking feeling. Chanel knew that wasn’t how he saw her, right? 

But how much did words matter when Bucky knew that his girlfriend's love language was quality time, he had figured it out in Romania and then when they moved into the compound asked Sam about it. His was physical touch and Chanel constantly obliged him but between his missions and her late nights, quality time wasn’t necessarily available. The longest amount of uninterrupted time was bedtime but he couldn’t do it. 

Chanel heard the grunting pretty late into the evening. She was glad her grandfather’s room was on the same floor as her, practically right across the hall. Before the noises could get louder and wake everyone else up Chanel left the bed to go help Bucky. She opened his door and just like before he was tangled up in the sheets, not moving except for his head that was thrashing back and forth. Chanel carefully stood at the edge of the bed and knocked the door pattern on his arm. 

Bucky paused, still in the nightmare but calmer. Chanel waited and knocked on his arm again. She did it three more times, waiting a beat in between each set. Bucky’s eyes flashed open and he looked over at her. He sat up, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. Bucky pulled Chanel in close to him. She played with his hair, eliciting a soft moan from him, while she stood there. He watched as she petted him with heavy-lidded eyes, trying not to fall asleep on the spot as she comforted him. 

“You know I care about you right?”

“I know, Bucky. I care about you too.” 

“I just want you to really know. I mean it with all my heart.”

Chanel's fingers faltered and somehow Bucky worried that he fucked up. She tilted his face upwards to look him in the eye. 

“Is something wrong, Buck?”

“No… I think I’m just tired from the nightmare.”

“You need real sleep. I’ll let you get it, goodnight.” 

“Goodnight.” 

Bucky watched Chanel fade from his grip and return to her room. The soft smile stayed on her face as she told him to rest but he didn’t miss the way that her eyes flitted to the bed. He sighed and flopped back down on the hard mattress.

* * *

Sam was giddy when Chanel and Bucky came back with leftovers. The first thing he did was mark every box letting the team know they were dead if they touched his food. Of course, Nat took a spoonful of peach cobbler right in front of him and the man did absolutely nothing. 

Steve frowned as he had to be the one to break up the fun. He, Nat, Bucky, and Sam had to go on a week-long mission. One of the leads they had in connection with Victor. It was just to check it out. Chanel pouted after she kissed Bucky but let them go— not like she had much choice. 

Thor had come to visit. The visit was for his two favorite nerds— Chanel and Bruce. Thor found a bunch of Asgardian books, journals, and some from other planets to drop off for Chanel. Bruce, he wanted for a mission. Chanel excitedly took the large stash. There was nothing terribly important with a real deadline so she pushed all her work on the backburner and started to dig through the new journals. The page that caught her interest was one with a drawing of bright gemstones. 

Bucky saw the lights still on under Chanel's door and got excited. He was supposed to have a few days off after the cookout and then Steve just had to assign them to the mission. Now he just wanted his princess and couldn’t wait to talk to her. 

“Darlin’, I mi—”

Chanel was asleep mid-work. Bucky chuckled at the unnatural position and wondered how she could’ve been comfortable enough to even fall asleep. He gently scooped up the papers on her bed, trying not to put them in the wrong order. Bucky caught glimpses of the work as he put it on the desk. Something about gauntlets and stones and Chanel was recording this weird timeline as if she was tracking someone. She was already in pajamas and hair already tied up so all he had to do was reposition her comfortably, into a real sleeping position. 

Bucky started to head out when he spotted his tactical boots neatly by the dresser. That’s where the other pair was, he had forgotten he took them off in here. He smiled as he saw a pair of Chanel's shoes by his— a pair of soft house slippers she wore around the compound instead of real shoes during office hours. The contrast of his hard shoes and her fluffy ones. Bucky sighed and went to the top drawer of the dresser, Chanel had a stack of his clothes in there. He ran downstairs to grab his toothbrush. 

Stark liked Chanel better. That’s what Bucky thought as he washed in his girlfriend's shower. He swore his shower didn’t have that strong of water pressure. When he felt clean from the mission, Bucky slipped on his pajamas and turned off the bedroom light. Chanel didn’t stir as he sunk onto the bed. 

Bucky was unsure what was happening when he felt water hit his chest. The confusion only grew when he looked at the clock on the nightstand reading three in the morning. He became more alert and looked over to see Chanel crying, wrapped up in his arms. Bucky realized his hands had found their way around her despite that not being the way he fell asleep. He pulled back almost immediately. 

“I, I didn’t ask if it was okay. Baby I didn’t mean, please don’t—”

“You stayed.” 

Bucky blinked as he registered her words. Chanel was crying happy tears because he had stayed the night and when she wasn't even expecting him home. He wiped her tears with his thumbs and pulled Chanel into his lap. He knew that her love language was quality time but he didn’t realize how much it impacted her. 

“Shit, baby, I should’ve stayed a long time ago.”

“It’s fine, Buck. I wanted you to be comfortable.”

“With you. I’m comfortable with you. Can I sleep here again tonight?”


	17. Chapter 17

It was a doctor’s appointment turned vacation. Bucky had to go back to Wakanda to get his arm checked and decided to turn it into a couple’s retreat for him and Chanel. The team already knew not to contact him for a mission unless the literal world was ending. 

“Two weeks. Just give me two weeks with my princess, please guys,” Bucky asked as the quinjet was headed home from a recon mission. 

“I think we can stop the bad guys for two weeks without Barnes and if we can’t maybe we should all retire.” Sam clapped Bucky on the back who smiled in appreciation. 

“I’m leaving too. It’s Coop’s birthday, we’re taking the kids to Disney,” Clint said. 

The team exited the elevators and stepped into the common room. They could see Chanel on the couch, asleep. She always tried to work late and stay up whenever she got wind that they were coming home from a mission so she could greet them. It worked about sixty-seven percent of the time. This was not one of those times. The rest of the Avengers watched Bucky crouch down in front of Chanel and lightly shake her shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open and a large smile appeared on her face. 

“You’re back.”

“Just got in, darlin’.” 

Bucky looked down at the journal that was underneath her. It looked relatively new so he assumed it was Chanel's personal one. He chuckled as he held it up— the page was smudged from where her face had been rubbing against it, and there was a small drool stain. 

“Slept good?” 

“Oh no,” Chanel grabbed it from him. “Don’t tell me I ruined it.”

The page wasn’t bad. Only the drawings were a little smudge but the drawings weren’t exactly important— just references for a clearer picture. 

“What is it?”

“Infinity Stones… I think, at least that’s what this Asgardian explorer called it but I’m pretty sure he, I think it’s a he, Asgardian names are kind of hard to make out gender hmm might not have a gender but he picked it up from Titans.”

“Infinity Stones?”

“Mmm hmm. They give the wearer God-like powers but would definitely kill most people if all six were used at once. And…”

“Let me guess,” Steve said when Chanel faltered. “Someone’s looking for them?”

“Arn— the explorer — says it’s a Titan but his descriptions are vague. I’ve been piecing it together but I don’t think the Titan wants it just for power. I think he’s on a mission, something happened. It doesn’t matter though, no one really knows where the stones are… well except for Vis, but the rest are currently lost in location.”

“Well, how about we continue piecing it together after bed, _printesa_?” 

Chanel nodded and stood up. Gathering her stuff, she let Bucky lead her with his hands on her shoulders towards the elevators. 

“Your room or mine?”

“My floor is closer, _printesa_.”

* * *

Bucky’s suitcase was filled with clothes for the both of them because Chanel's suitcase was filled with papers. She also put in a two week vacation form with S.H.I.E.L.D. but the papers were all Infinity Stone related. Chanel felt compelled to figure this out. It was probably nothing considering the planet Titan was apparently wiped out or damn near a few years ago but still. If Arn seemed concerned, she was as well.

It would’ve been easier with Thor and Bruce to help her figure out anything— the stones seemed very science based— but they were still gone doing who knows what. Chanel assured Bucky that he and Wakanda were the main focus of their trip and the books were mere background. 

Despite the fact that T’Challa opened outreach programs to the world after the whole Killmonger incident, Wakanda itself didn’t get many tourists— not that they were complaining. And most tourists didn’t stay long, didn’t go very far, and were black. So when the couple stepped off the quinjet, Bucky was still greeted with the shouts of random children calling him White Wolf. Chanel also earned a nickname, Little Raven. Amongst the historian, Caliber, and a few others she didn’t care for, Little Raven wasn’t that bad. They called her that because of her cleverness like the bird and because ravens hung around wolves.

“You two need to visit more often!” Shuri practically pounced on Chanel, followed by Okoye. 

“I’ve missed this place, Wakanda is honestly a second home.”

“Then come visit your cousins.”

“My fault, I’m afraid. Missions keep us kind of busy,” Bucky said as he took the suitcases and started walking towards a car. 

She and him were stopped before he could put them in the trunk. 

“Where do you two think you’re going?”

“Our apartment… did you guys sell it?”

“We moved you.”

Okoye took a bag from Bucky and they followed her. This apartment was a little closer to the palace than their last one, considering it was within easy walking distance. After seeing the place, Chanel understood why they moved them. The old apartment was a two bedroom— both bedrooms small and made for roommates. This two bedroom was made for an actual couple/small family. One of the rooms was significantly bigger, clearly the master bedroom. 

It was also a lot nicer than the other place. To the point where for a brief second Chanel and Bucky were concerned it would take up a whole paycheck from one of them, even with the sizable salaries S.H.I.E.L.D. (Tony) provided. T’Challa insisted they didn’t have to pay but the two wanted to do things as normal as possible in life and paying for an apartment was something civilians did. 

Shuri was pleased with the tests being run on Bucky. His arm seemed in fine condition as well as his brain, they would try to help him with the nightmares. While he ran tests, Chanel worked on the journals. Bucky came back to the apartment very late to see her on the bed looking at a loose sheet of paper. He walked over and carefully climbed on the bed, not one to mess up her work. Chanel smiled but kept working as Bucky’s weight slowly settled on top of her— he still kept himself propped up a little. Bucky moved her hair out of the way and Chanel almost shuddered as she felt his breath against the back of her neck. 

“Is this okay?”

“I’m working.” 

He backed off and just hung his head over Chanel's shoulder to see what she was doing. Bucky watched her finish a sketch of a gauntlet and next to it… a giant purple man?

“Who’s this?”

“Thanos. I think. Another explorer actually gave a name of the Titan and a description. Big, purple, large chin, beady eyes. I’m guessing this is what he looked like.”

“So that’s who wants the stones?”

“His planet was dying, he thought that would make it better. Titan was gone before he could find out, and then he went dark.”

“Dark?”

“The new explorer’s journal. It’s a refugee diary. Thanos couldn’t save his own planet and now wants to save others. He wiped out half their population.”

“Half?!”

“To stop them from overpopulating and dying like Titan. And from what it seems, he’s got a lot of resources to do it. I wish I had his journal, could know exactly what he wants instead of third hand accounts. But Thanos doesn’t strike me as a notebook keeping type, huh?” 

Chanel finished the drawing and showed Bucky more of what she found. He was impressed. Just like with Victor she managed to get into the head of Thanos and figure out what they wanted. She showed him a crude drawing of the universe, her attempt at mapping all the planets outside the solar system and locating Titan— Chanel wanted to give it to Thor, since he trusted her with the Asgard files, she wanted it to be an Asgardian that went back to Titan. Snapping the book shut, Chanel put her work off to the side and turned around underneath Bucky so she could look him in the eye. 

“It’s kind of sad, don’t you think? I mean it’s wrong but he’s trying to fix a problem. He just doesn’t even see that he’s not actually helping.”

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“Yeah. Still, I wish we could talk to him… help him.”

“Does he want to be helped?”

“I don’t know. But I want to find him and tell S.H.I.E.L.D., if anyone can help it’s the Avengers.”

“You sound like those cheesy skits about us.” 

Chanel batted her eyelashes and sighed dramatically. “Oh thank goodness you’re here, Mr. Winter Soldier. I need an Avenger to save me.”

“Cheesy, darlin’.”

“I’m a damsel. I’m in distress. And I need a strong Avenger to save me.”

She reached up to grab Bucky’s face. He rolled his eyes, laughing, but dropped his head down to kiss her. Chanel's hands fisted in his shirt as his tongue swiped against her bottom lip. Bucky pulled away and she whined a little. He pecked her lips once more and then lifted her up once he got off. 

“Tomorrow, do you want to go to the jazz bar?”

“That sounds fun, Buck.”

The two showered together like they almost always did— the exception being when he was covered in blood that wasn’t his own from a mission. Chanel settled easily into Bucky’s right side. He always preferred her on the right since it was his flesh arm. Bucky rubbed her arm until she fell asleep, following shortly after. 

Chanel felt Bucky’s grip tighten slightly and felt movement from underneath her. He was having another nightmare, she could tell from the movement. Without even opening an eye, she stretched her hand and gingerly brushed her fingertips against him until she reached the metal arm. Chanel found that he woke up sooner when she knocked on the metal, the sound of the knocking combined with the touch pulled him into the real world quicker. 

Bucky stilled for a moment and his eyes flashed open. He looked down at Chanel. Her eyes were closed but she was still knocking, unaware that he was awake now. Bucky grabbed her hand to stop it. He watched her sigh as he kissed her knuckles. When he let go, Chanel's hand fell to where it was wrapped around his waist before the nightmare had started. She snuggled in harder and was once again out like a light. Bucky just watched his girlfriend for a moment before closing his eyes and settling back down. Chanel didn’t blink, didn’t complain, and wasn't scared. She just tapped him awake like it was nothing and went back to sleep. For that he was forever grateful.


	18. Chapter 18

Instead of getting a call from the team, Chanel and Bucky were suddenly face to face with them. Some of them. Now they didn’t see Peter, Tony, or Clint. 

“Clint’s getting his family back to the farm, we um, don’t know where Stark and the kid are,” Steve said when he pulled back from the hug. 

“Okay, but why are you guys here?”

“How far have you gotten on those stones?” Bruce, who Chanel was shocked to see, asked.

They quickly entered the lab where Shuri was up immediately to see Vision and examine him. Bruce pulled Shuri aside to talk about the notebook amongst other things.

“Bruce, half of Asgard?” Chanel asked in disbelief. 

“Half of what little was already left. That’s what Thor called me for when we left. They called it—”

“Ragnarok,” she recalled the myths from Arn’s journal.

At least she had thought it was myth and legend. Chanel shook her head to clear it. Her heart ached for Thor but now was a bigger problem. Now that everyone was settled in the lab, they looked to Chanel… even Shuri. 

“I’m not done but by the time Shuri gets the mind stone out of Vision, I’ll have the whole journal finished, I’m sure… I’ll make sure. You said four days?”

Shuri nodded. 

“Okay, I’ll try to get it done in four days. I’m not really needed for the rest of this right now, I think it’s best if I go home and start.” 

The rest of the team agreed since they would just train with the Dora Milaje and plan for an invasion. 

“Alright. See you at home, Buck.”

“Catch you in a minute, darlin’.” 

Bucky waved and blew her a kiss that Chanel pretended to dramatically catch, an ode to the cheesy damsel in distress joke from the other night. She briskly walked home and pulled out her journal, flipping through what she had done so far. The stones had been tracked, if she had known Thanos was headed their way she would’ve said something. Chanel didn’t have their exact present day location but she did have them tracked up to last year and someone could’ve started to look. But it wasn’t a concern, Earth wasn’t overpopulated. Maybe struggling a little but not overpopulated. Apparently not to Thanos. 

There were various drawings for how to hold all the stones at once to use them. It was just a drawing with no real plans since engineering was Tony’s thing not Chanel's. Explanations of each stone, Thanos’ backstory— as much as she could find, and a map of the universe were also in the journal. 

Now, Chanel's focus was on anything that would help them stop Thanos with the other five stones so they could be given to Wanda to destroy. She also needed a backup in case Wanda couldn’t destroy the others for whatever reason— Chanel was sure the stones could destroy each other but what she hadn’t discovered yet was if that would blast Earth into oblivion, a safe option is what she needed to find. While Chanel was in the apartment, the others were gathered around Vision. 

“Four days? Not any quicker?” Steve asked. 

“There’s too many paths. If I mess up on one, it will cause critical failure in Vision.” 

“Alright. Well it’s better than no—”

Shuri, Okoye, and T’Challa’s kimoyo beads rang alarmingly loud. Okoye pulled up a map of Wakanda on her beads and moved it to the large screen.

“Something’s entered the atmosphere.”

“Cap,” Sam’s voice came through everyone’s comm. “We’ve got a problem here.”

The barrier shook as something hit it. Everyone looked at Shuri. There wasn’t going to be much time for the young scientist, they had to act and fast. More and more ships were landing outside the barrier. Bucky cursed in a moment of panic, there was no time to get to Chanel. T’Challa yelled for them to evacuate the city, he had to hope that she would leave with the Wakandans headed for Jabariland. 

“There are two heat signatures at the barrier,” Rhodey’s voice came in as he headed outside to scope the area with Sam. 

“What the hell?” Bucky whispered when they all raced out. Alien dog creatures were shoving themselves at the barrier in attempts to get through. 

“Captain, if these things close in around us, they’re going to get to Vision.” 

“I’m not done!” Shuri yelled. 

“Then we better keep them in front of us,” Steve said. 

“Open the barrier,” T’Challa calmly commanded. 

Chanel heard screaming and then it got eerily silent. She lifted her head from the work to look out the large window. Gasping, she stepped back as an alien hit the top of the barrier but disintegrated. Thanos was here. Chanel scrambled back to the journal. This wasn’t about prevention anymore, this was about reversing. The team always admired her plans and what she managed to figure out. 

The sinking feeling in her stomach told Chanel that she needed a new plan for when Thanos screws them all over. Her pen flew and she was a little worried that her handwriting would be hard for her to understand later but that wasn’t what mattered. Chanel picked up her phone, there was a special connection to the comms. The minute the phone line went through she started speaking, not caring who picked it up. 

“Don’t let him close his hand! Thanos’ closes his hand and we’re dead.”

“Yeah… we’ve got that.” She heard the grunt of Sam and assumed they were already fighting him. 

Then she heard the yelling of Thor, when did he get back? Chanel couldn’t make out any words he was saying since he wasn’t wearing a comm but it sounded pissed. 

“Where’d he go?” Steve asked. 

“What the hell is happening?” Bruce asked and Chanel desperately wished to see what was happening on the field. 

“Where’d he…” Chanel whispered. “Look! You guys need to find Thanos, it can be stopped if St—”

“ _Printesa_?” 

Bucky called for her along with the rest of the team in the field. The rest of the team that was still alive or non-dusted? They had no clue what was happening. 

“Bucky?” Chanel's voice came out shakily. “I don’t feel well… no, no.”

They couldn’t stop Bucky as he ran. Sam had never seen the man move that fast but it was clear that he could easily keep up with Steve, maybe surpass him. They all heard Chanel's voice on the line as she whispered no and they heard the scribbling of something. 

“Bucky, I want you to know that you’ve become an amazing person. Do you hear me, James? I care about you, okay. I care about you so much, James Bar—”

They heard the line go quiet. Then the only sound that came through their comms was Bucky. 

“Chanel! _Printesa_ … Shit!” 

The Avengers heard in their comms something crash as they headed towards the apartment. The vase was smashed against the wall when they entered and Bucky was sitting on the couch clutching his cell phone in his hand. He had his hands pressed against his lips and his friends could see the wet tear stains down his face. Without saying anything, Bucky held up the phone and pressed something. 

“Bucky, I want you to know that you’ve become an amazing person. Do you hear me, James? I care about you, okay. I care about you so much, James Bar—” Her voice played out on the phone. 

“She recorded the end of the call and sent it to me.” 

“I’m sorry, Buck.”

Steve spoke up. Even though Bucky wasn’t looking at them, the rest of the team nodded and agreed with Steve’s sentiments. 

“She cared a lot about you, I know you care—”

“No. Damn it, I don’t care about Chanel, Steve. I love her… let’s go, S.H.I.E.L.D. probably wants us back to New York as soon as possible.”

“Bucky, we don’t have to leave right now. If you need a day, we get it.”

“Thanks, punk, but I don’t think I can be here right now. Printesa’s presence is all… maybe later, but I think for now I need to leave.” 

The team watched Bucky walk onto the quinjet with heavy steps. He didn’t take anything with him but his cell phone that had Chanel's last message. He was quiet. And Bucky stayed quiet for all the days to follow, he answered only really when spoken to. The few times he opened up it involved crying to Steve, which usually made him feel worse because Steve was all he had left after he had been told Sam was dusted. Steve didn’t know how to help either. He felt the pain of Sam but of Chanel, it was like losing a friend too. He still had Sharon, luckily, and he knew he would never understand Bucky’s pain on that level. The pain of wishing he had kissed Chanel properly before she left the lab instead of being silly. 

Bucky was sitting outside the compound, late at night, like he normally did. He picked at his fingers, debating on whether to play Chanel's recording again. He needed to stop is what he told himself but it was her voice. Before Bucky could pick up the phone, a woman landed on the compound setting down a large spaceship. The others joined him outside quickly. The door opened and a very sick near-death looking Tony was being escorted by a blue cyborg/android lady. Steve ran up to Tony to help him down the steps of the ship.

“Couldn’t stop him,” Tony muttered.

“Neither could we,” Steve said as he held onto Tony’s arm. 

“I lost the kid.”

“We lost, Tony.” 

Rhodey pulled up the files onto the holographic screens of the conference room. “It’s been 23 days since Thanos’ snap. World governments are in pieces.”

“He did exactly as he said he was going to do,” Nat started. “Thanos wiped out exactly half of the population.” 

“Where is he now?” Tony asked from his chair. 

Steve sighed. “We don’t know.”

“We don’t know?”

“He opened a portal and walked through. We’ve been hunting Thanos for three weeks. Deep space scans, satellites, we got nothing. Tony you fought him—”

“There was no fight. He dropped a moon on my face,” Tony cut Steve off. “You can’t fight him because he’s unbeatable.” 

“Did he give you any clues, coordinates, anything?” 

“Hmm let me think, oh wait, nothing Steve.”

“Tony now’s not—”

“Don’t tell me what the time is! I watched them all turn to dust. I almost died in space. We lost, Cap. We lost. I’ve got nothing for you. No clues, no strategies, no options. Zero, zip, nada.” 

Tony ripped the IV out of his arm and immediately hit the floor. Pepper and Rhodey laid him down in a bed. Bruce had given him a sedative and he seemed calmer. 

“You guys take care of him. I’ll bring him an elixir when I come back,” Carol said as she started to move toward the door. 

“Where are you going?” Nat asked. 

“To kill Thanos.”

“Hey, we’re usually a team here. I know it’s different for you but we’ve got to work together. We get that it’s more your territory but it’s our fight too.”

“Do you even know where he is?” Rhodey asked. 

“I know people who might.” 

“Don’t bother,” Nebula said. “I know where my father is.”

* * *

“Understand this might not work. We’re going in shorthanded. There’s no guarantee this ends any differently than before,” Bruce said. 

“Because before you didn’t have me,” Carol said. 

Rhodey stopped her. 

“Hey, new girl. In case you haven’t noticed, everyone in this ship is ‘bout that superhero life. And if you don’t mind me asking, where the hell have you been this entire time?”

Carol shrugged. “There are a lot of other planets in the universe, not just Earth.”

“Can you both shut the fuck up?” Bucky spat out aggressively. 

Carol and Rhodey instantly got quiet. The whole ship got a little quiet. They all lost people. They all lost Chanel but Bucky was invested in her and they had to remember that. He thought he lost everything with Steve, and then he really did with HYDRA, thought so again when Chanel could’ve died at the hands of Winter Soldier, and now she was actually gone. This was his chance and he was on edge and antsy, any little annoyance made him snap. 

Carol blasted beams at the hut that Thanos was in. She held him in a chokehold while Bruce, in the Iron Hulk suit, and Rhodey held him down. It took everyone to fight and pull off the gauntlet. Bruce finally pulled off the gauntlet.They watched it clank to the floor stoneless. 

“Where are they?” Steve asked, holding the edge of his shield to Thanos’ throat.

“The universe required correction. And once fixed, the stones became nothing more than a temptation.”

Bruce let go of Thanos and punched him across the room. “You murdered trillions!”

“You should be grateful,” Thanos said. 

“Where are the stones?” 

“Gone. Reduced to atoms.”

“You’re lying. You used them two days ago.”

“I used the stones to destroy the stones, nearly killing me. But it had to be done. I am inevitable.”

Thor screamed as he sliced off Thanos’ head before any of the others could stop him. 

“What did you do?” Rocket asked as they looked at Thano’s detached head. 

“I went for the head,” Thor said without absolutely no feeling. He walked out of the hut. 

“So what now?”

“Now?” Steve said. “Now we have to move on… Buck, where are you going?” 

“The ship. We get back, you drop me off in Wakanda. You said we move on, this is me moving on.” 

The team watched him stalk out of the hut and take himself to the ship. 


	19. Chapter 19

“My Queen, we’ve gotten the attackers at the border… they’re Americans mainly and a few others,” Okoye said to Ramonda. 

After T’Challa and Shuri were dusted, Wakanda asked for Ramonda to step up and lead. No one dared challenge, even after she almost begged. But she pushed through her own grief to lead her people. 

“Take them to Sergeant Barnes for questioning.”

“The White Wolf is still on his mission, Your Highness.”

* * *

Bucky threw the smugglers into the back of the giant armored van and got back into the passenger’s seat. W’Kabi started up the van and they drove back to Wakanda. After checking that the prisoners were all locked up, Bucky headed back with W’Kabi to the palace to report to Okoye and Queen Ramonda. 

“I’ll get to the attackers on Friday. They’re probably working for someone else.”

“Thank you, James,” Ramona said. “Will you be okay tomorrow?”

The three native Wakandans looked at him. Bucky swallowed and shifted in his spot, it would be the anniversary of the dusting. Five years and it was well known that the former Winter Soldier never took it too well. The only thing he wanted to do was drink himself into forgetfulness when the day came around and getting drunk was the one thing he couldn’t do. He usually went to the outskirts of town and returned early in the morning to do his job, acting like nothing occurred the night before.

“I will be, I think I’m going to stay at home actually.”

“That seems like a good idea, we’ll leave you to it.” 

Bucky nodded and proceeded to walk out of the throne room before Okoye stopped him. “W’Kabi and I are having a simple dinner tomorrow. Would you like to join us?” 

“I don’t… maybe I should. Okay, that sounds nice, thank you.”

The apartment was too empty when he returned. Bucky knew it was unhealthy to stay but he couldn’t bring himself to move apartments. All of Chanel's stuff he kept in the master bedroom and he moved into the smaller guest room. Bucky washed off and sunk into the small bed. 

He looked over at the clock. 4 a.m. The sheets were wracked with sweat from his nightmare. He sat up and looked around the dark room. Grabbing his phone, Bucky opened to his messages and searched for a text he hadn’t played since getting on a quinjet to Wakanda. 

“Bucky, I want you to know that you’ve become an amazing person. Do you hear me, James? I care about you, okay. I care about you so much, James Bar—” 

The tears rolled down his face and Bucky clutched his phone in his right hand. The only reason he wasn’t throwing it was because it held Chanel's last voice message. He got up slowly, everything felt numb. After getting out the shower and changing the sheets, Bucky let his eyes wander to the door he’s kept closed for five years. 

He approached it carefully and slowly as if there was a feral tiger behind the door. The dust that was gathered flew up before resettling as Bucky entered the room. His fingers dusted across every surface, stopping at a picture frame. Sam had taken it— Chanel and Bucky, asleep on the couch. His dog tags, that she had stopped constantly tucking in, caught a flash on the camera. 

Bucky set down the picture and kept looking around. It was all her stuff or things he had bought her yet it felt so foreign somehow. Chanel's phone laid dead on the nightstand along with her family’s tags. Aside from occasional calls and visits to Steve and Natasha, Bucky didn’t really see the rest of the team. However Chanel's family, what was left, he made sure to always call. Cookouts were way more somber and he knew it when Ella sat next to him two years ago and started asking about Chanel and him in a casual, almost friendly way. 

Her mom and dad were both still alive. The third cookout when Bucky showed up again, the entire family knew what was up even if he didn’t. Bucky was in deep. And he knew it when at the fourth cookout, Chanel's mom and dad gave Bucky their rings. It was a symbolic gesture since he’d never be able to give her one but Bucky wore them like he used to wear his tags, always and tucked under his shirt. 

Finally his eyes landed on Chanel's journal that he had set on the bed. Bucky sat down on the bed and picked it up gingerly. The same way Chanel never looked at Bucky’s personal notebooks, he never looked at hers. But just this once, he opened the pages. The book almost flew from his hands when the first page showed her drawing of the Infinity Stones. The reason they were in this damn mess. But Bucky persisted and kept thumbing through, reading the pages just to look at Chanel's handwriting. His phone rang and he was brought out of his trance, taking her notebook with him to go answer it. 

“Steve… Do you know what day it is? If you’re fucking playing with me I swear… okay, I’ll be there soon.”

* * *

“Alright. We’ve got the how, now we just have to figure out the when and where. We have limited particles to retrieve the stones. This has to be perfect,” Steve said. 

Tony paced back and forth. The team was pulling up a hologram to try and place the stones when Bucky walked in. He noticed them before they saw him. 

“2012. You’re looking for three of them in 2012,” he said, causing the team to jump and look at him. 

He walked over and opened Chanel's journal to a page where she traced timelines. Everyone looked and followed her handwriting. 

“She knew,” Tony said as he started copying down the timeline onto the large screen. “The minute Thanos landed, she knew what could happen.”

“Yeah, and wrote it all down in case she got dusted,” Bucky said, tense. “What are we going to do about the Soul Stone?”

“What about it? She said it’s on Vormir, 2014.”

Bucky flipped back to the earlier pages with the descriptions. “To get the stone, you have to kill for the stone.”

“What?” 

Tony grabbed the notebook and turned it towards him. If it wasn’t a life or death mission, Bucky could’ve wrung his throat for handling Chanel's notebook so harshly. 

“Not just anyone. It’s a sacrifice of someone you care about.” 

“I’ll do it,” a woman who Bucky had never seen before said. 

Nat reached for her arm. “Yelena.”

“It’s fine, Nat. I’ve finally made peace with myself. Let’s do this one last thing for the good of everyone… Natasha and I will go to Vormir,” Yelena said with determination. 

Bucky was quickly taught by Tony how to run the machine. His metal arm, especially a vibranium one, was too noticeable and valuable to risk him being seen in the past if they couldn’t get out smoothly. Bucky sat at the controls as everyone came out, suited up. 

“Alright, everyone meet back in a minute.” Steve adjusted his time travel suit. “You find the stones and come back safe. Encounter any problems, don’t have them. Don’t stop fighting till you’re dead. Get killed, walk it off.” 

“Hell of a speech, Stevie. See you guys soon,” Bucky said as he started up the machine. 

“It was nice meeting all of you,” Yelena said. “Give him hell for me.” 

* * *

Everyone stood around the lab as Tony, Rocket, and Bruce finished setting the stones in the new glove.

“Alright, glove’s finished,” Rocket said. “Now the question is, who’s going to snap their fingers?”

Thor jumped up, only to be stopped by basically everybody. He was still hurting, it was understandable why he would want to do it. 

“Just wait,” Steve said. “We should at least discuss it.” 

“Look. Sitting here and standing about isn’t going to bring everybody back. I’m the strongest Avenger, okay? So let me,” Thor started.

“I’m telling you, you’re in no condition,” Tony said. 

“Do you know what is coursing through my veins?”

“Cheese Whiz?” Rhodey retorted. 

“Lightning. We need to do it… do something good, something right, do…”

“It’s not that simple, buddy. That glove holds enough energy to light up a continent,” Tony said. 

“I’ll do it,” Bruce said. “I’ve spent months in the gamma lab. I’m the closest here to Thanos’ composition and I should be able to withstand it.”

“You sure, Bruce?” Natasha asked. 

“You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him. It’s up to me.”

Everyone looked at each other. Bruce was right.

“Alright,” Tony said. “Remember, bring back everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago. Don’t touch the now.” 

“Got it.” 

They all suited up to protect themselves from the potential blast of the stones. If it went wrong, there was a possibility that nothing would happen or that they would all die… and they were hoping that if failure occurred, it would be the former problem not the latter. The glove stretched around Bruce’s hand. He suddenly kneeled under the power of the stones. Thor yelled for him to take it off but Bruce assured everyone that he was fine. The glove smoked until Bruce snapped. Nothing happened. But they weren’t concerned about that. Bruce, whose arm was charred and smoking, was the main focus. He was groaning as he lied on the floor. 

“Don’t move him,” Tony said as Steve approached. 

Tony blasted something from the Iron Man suit to ease the pain. 

“Did it work?” Bruce asked. 

“We’re not sure, are you okay?” Thor asked as he knelt next to his friend.

They slowly sat Bruce up and assessed the damage. Not too bad once the smoke had settled, just a wicked radiation burn that could’ve looked worse if it wasn’t for the fact Bruce was right. The gamma from Hulk made it look more like a burn from fire. Scott stared out the window when they all heard it. Birds. Bucky’s phone started ringing. 

“I missed you, James.”

“Chanel, darlin’, I—” 

The team stopped and looked at him. It worked. With shaky hands, he put the phone on speaker so they could all hear her but no one interrupted or spoke over him. 

“Chanel, I’m at the compound but I’ll come get you soon. Alright, _printesa_? I’ll be right there. I promise you, I’ll be right there. I swear.”

“Breathe, Bucky. Honey, breathe before you pass out please. I’ll be waiting here at the apartment. Have guys put Steve on ice like I wrote?”

“Steve?”

“Um, hi Chanel. I’m right here,” Steve spoke up. 

“Steve? Steven Grant Rogers, why are you not getting iced right now! There’s bound to be radiation left from the glove, what are—”

“Chanel. I didn’t use the glove, Bruce did. Well, Hulk did.”

“Bruce?! What the hell is wrong with all of you? Did you read my notebook at all?”

They could hear her pacing around the apartment— small and confined to the length of the charger cord. Bruce stuck out a hand and Bucky gently placed his phone in Bruce’s palm as if the phone was the only thing proving Chanel was alive and he wasn’t going to risk dropping it. 

“Yeah we got the timeline notes. You saved us a lot of trouble.”

“Did you only read the timeline pages?”

“And the stone notes, the Soul Stone would—”

“Did you even flip to the back?! I said Steve should snap.”

“Hulk was the best for the gamma. We didn’t even let Thor—”

“Yeah, yeah. Strongest Avenger whatever… why did you spend so much time in a gamma lab Bruce? You were all trying to recreate the super soldier serum. One that Steve was blasted with radiation to create and he survived it perfectly… does no one read Erskine’s notes!”

“How could we they were all water stained or hidden, we thought it was just the serum and a heating container.”

“Yeah, a heating container of radiation! Jesus, Steve would’ve been just fine… are you okay, Bruce?”

“A little hurt but I’m fine.” 

“Okay, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be yelling, it’s over now anyway, doesn’t matter…” 

The team heard gunshots go off and then a small scream from her. 

“Chanel!” 

“Who the hell are you?” They heard her ask. 

“Ma’am, I need you to calm down. I’m Doctor Stephen Strange.”

Bruce quickly spoke up, “Chanel, we know him. You can trust him.” 

“I’m going to need you to hang up the phone now,” Strange said, giving her a look that it was something important. 

“James?”

“Yes, darlin’?”

“I’ll see you later okay?”

They said their byes to Bucky and hung up the phone. Chanel set it down and turned all her attention to the weird man who portaled into her apartment. 

“I think you and I know there are two ways out of this, we need to talk.” 

* * *

Chanel was on pins and needles as she waited for Strange’s signal. Strange in the middle of battle was antsy, talking to Chanel was a potential risk. Normally saying what happened meant that it wouldn’t happen but normally people didn’t know the plan. Chanel did though, because she had spent so much time trying to figure it out like him and she got lucky that she got the outcome randomly on the third assessment because Strange had to look through the thousands of scenarios. So he talked with her and came up with a plan, one that wouldn’t get Tony killed. What Strange didn’t discuss with Chanel is how they should be glad Hulk did the first snap. 

Strange’s signal was hard to miss. It was a portal in Chanel's living room super small that let her see the scene unfolding in front of her. She picked up the phone and dialed the number on the comms, pressing the number 1 to make it a private line. 

“Steve? Don’t let them do something stupid.”

“Cha—”

She cut him off knowing that his comm was still connected to the others. 

“Don’t talk, I made my end private with you. Just hurry up and don’t let Tony be stupid. That’s all I can say. Roger that, Captain?” 

The line cut out before Steve could switch his comm to a private line. He had no clue what had just happened. Steve looked over to Bucky who was fighting with a vengeance and then to everyone else. No one else had stopped like him, Chanel did make the line private and he wasn’t sure why. Steve looked around again just as Thanos knocked Tony back. Thor hit him before Thanos could grab the gauntlet. He held the axe to Thanos’ neck and that sprung Steve and Bucky into action. 

They ran behind Thanos to hold him. The axe almost cut him before Thanos threw his head back to knock Steve and Bucky off and then slammed forward into Thor to knock him off again. Thanos slipped the gauntlet on. Carol blasted beams at him while Sam tried to swoop in and grab the stones. Carol grappled with the gauntlet, keeping Thanos’ fingers spread far apart. Thanos grabbed the power stone from the gauntlet and used it in his other hand, to knock Sam away. Steve looked around and saw Tony who wasn’t looking at him but Strange, holding up one finger. Tony nodded and Chanel's words rang in Steve’s head. _Don’t let Tony be stupid_. And then he remembered her yelling at Bucky and Bruce over the phone. _What the hell is wrong with you? I said Steve should snap._

Steve threw his shield at Tony and ran as fast as he could to the gauntlet, grabbing the stones when Thanos looked confused at Tony suddenly flying away from him. Everyone watched in horror as he held the hand with the gauntlet up. 

“I told you, I am inevitable. This universe can’t avoid me.”

Thanos snapped and everyone braced themselves but when the snap rang out and they opened their eyes, it was Thanos’ side that was fading to dust. They all looked around in wonder until they heard Steve groaning. He dropped the stones and Bucky raced over to his friend who seemed relatively okay, minus half of his suit was burnt as well as his arm being scarred up. Steve plopped most of his weight onto Bucky as his friend helped him sit on a pile of rubble. 

“I see why Chanel said I needed the ice. Shit, that hurt.” 

“Crazy. You and _printesa_ are both batshit crazy,” Bucky chuckled. 

* * *

Strange opened a portal for Chanel to Tony’s cabin where he had moved most of the team since the compound was absolutely trashed. Apparently the cabin was still in New York just far from the city and had enough space to set up the time machine again so they could return the stones. Chanel ran through the portal and jumped straight onto her boyfriend’s back. Bucky set her down and immediately turned around, his arms pulling her into the tightest hug imaginable. 

“Chanel,” he breathed out. 

Bucky pulled back and Chanel almost jumped with how quickly his lips were on her. He held your waist tightly. Despite the fact that the team was in Tony’s backyard, Bucky kissed her like there was no tomorrow. Chanel gently pulled his bottom lip between her teeth causing him to bring her closer to him if possible. The two finally pulled away after what felt like an eternity when they needed a breath. Bucky rested his forehead against hers. 

“Five years, _printesa_ , five years and I’ve seen no one but you.” 

Chanel gasped and the team turned around, focusing on the two instead of the stones. Bucky was down on one knee. He took the necklace from around his neck and she could see rings dangling there, her mother’s ring easily recognizable. Bucky removed one of the rings from the necklace and held it up. He hadn’t even said anything yet but Bucky was already smiling as he watched Chanel's little head nods and the happy tears in the corner of her eyes. 

“I don’t want to see anybody but you. You’re the end of the line for me, will you let me be yours? I don’t just care about you. I also love you, will you marry me? Is that okay?” 

“Yes! Absolutely yes.” 

Bucky stood up and slipped the ring on Chanel's finger. As sweet as the moment was, it soon turned silly as Sam and Steve began to argue over who would be the best man. They stepped aside to let Bruce start up the machine to return the stones. Bucky had Chanel up against him the entire time as they waited for the others. His arms snaked around her middle as she tapped on his hands. 

Chanel and Bucky weren’t the only shock of the day. Steve handed Sam his shield. He was done with the Avengers life, his arm and part of his face were still scarred. Both Stark Industries and Wakanda’s Science Department offered him technology for his arm since he lost a lot of feeling in it and couldn’t use it to fight, only perform basic tasks. 

But Steve old-fashioned Rogers refused and said it was right that he just stepped down and handed it to someone else who deserved the mantle. Since she's known him, Chanel knew Sam was the second embodiment of freedom and righteousness— arguably a little funnier than Steve. She was proud of him for becoming the new bearer of the iconic shield. Steve came over to Chanel and Bucky while Sam talked with Sharon about how his new position would work. Chanel gently punched Steve’s arm. 

“Welcome to the HouseWives’ Club.” 

He chuckled. “Are there membership perks?”

“Constant worrying about your Avengers partner, lots of nights with empty beds, and Tony’s money.” 

“I plan on racking up a bill.”

“Hey, Cap!” Sam called out, bringing them all to his attention. “Does this mean I get the title of America’s ass too? Cause I’m just saying, look back at it!” 

He turned around making the team all bust out in laughter. The day was good. The world was saved, most of the team was choosing to stay in New York, damn near everyone was alive and uninjured, Chanel just got engaged. She turned in Bucky’s arms and kissed him again, trying to make up for five years missed. 


End file.
